OK, we committed to making this a fun weekend. (Well, that is until about 3:30 Saturday afternoon, then it becomes a stressful weekend considering any long-term lofty aspirations for either set of Tigers in Jordan-Hare depend on the outcome.)
So with that in mind, let’s start a new tradition to the Friday mailbag.
Introducing the “What’s good about Twitter” segment. We’ll start with the obvious choice to follow: Darren Rovell, the ESPN sports BID-ness reporter who drops crazy factoids all the time.
As for the Tweet that made me smile, let’s go here because that’s Bengals corner Dre Kirkpatrick attending a pre-Thursday night tailgate at an assisted living facility. (Side question: Has the phrase “old folks home” been PCed too?) Nice gesture for sure, but this one hits another gear when Kirkpatrick and a 94-year-old woman start jamming to Snoop.
We’ll even offer one more: Here’s Michael Irvin on the NFL Network saying Joe Flacco has not had a receiver he could trust since Anquan Boldin. Steve Smith, who played with the Ravens and Flacco, was sitting next to Irving and was less than pleased with that notion.
Happy Friday everyone.
From Steeler Fan
Hey Jay,
Heard you talking about Le’Veon Bell on the radio.
Two thoughts:
1. This situation is still leading Sports Center because of fantasy football owners who are PO’d that the Steelers don’t just open the bank and give Le’Veon whatever he wants. The reality is that both sides are doing what is in their own best interest under the rules of the CBA. By the way, Le’Veon is leaving more money on the table each week than James Conner will make all year.
2. One of the undiscussed subplots of this situation is the rising influence of agents. It’s easy for them to play the “respect” card with their guys because they have such a big stake in the outcome of the negotiations. Winning team championships is way down on their priority list. In fact, it’s probably not on the list at all. This creates a big disconnect with people like me who don’t play fantasy but have the gall to actually root for a team. Meanwhile, ex-players all over TV suddenly want to fight the Steelers O-line for simply expressing disappointment in the situation.
Prediction: Conner and T.J. Watt, who play with unbridled love for the game, will one day hoist a Lombardi Trophy. Le’Veon Bell will not.
Thoughts?
Steeler Fan –
Have thought about you during this very public spat behind the Steeler Curtain. (Side note: For a franchise that has never been about the drama, the recent years under Mike Tomlin have been uncharacteristically soap opera-esque.)
I concur with your assessment that this is still a story – more so than say Eric Reid, a Pro Bowl caliber safety who is still jobless because of his protests – because of the fantasy football implications. And man, anyone who took Bell 1 over Gurley, well, that’s a stunner. (Side note, II: If you are in a fantasy league, we suggest reading for Bell ASAP. Why, you ask? Well, the goal is to win the league and if you are a middle-of-the-road team in a league and deal a No. 2 RB and a No. 3 WR who may help you finish as high as third for a home-run hitter like Bell, who gives any team a legit chance to win the whole thing, that makes total sense to me.)
Where were we? Oh yes, the liberty of Bell.
Both sides are doing exactly what they think is right and the decision-making makes a lot of sense for Bell and the Steelers. Bell has 700-plus touches the last two years, and a monster deal in the Todd Gurley neighborhood will never happen if Bell damages either of his legs. The Steelers have a lot of guys they have to pay and in a hard salary-cap league, we understand the logic of not drafting RBs high and not paying them after their rookie deal. (Nice stat on Bell’s weekly missed check is bigger than Connor’s annual salary.)
As for point 2, the influence of the agents (and the supporting folks like Kawhi Leonard’s uncle in San Antonio) is an interesting subplot that you are right, has not been discussed.
But the positioning of sports fans when it comes to contracts has always been interesting to me. Unless you own your own company or get major bonus coin for company performance, all of us are labor. We are more like the players than the owners by comparison, yet we almost always get frustrated or upset at labor for the hold-out, if that makes sense.
The NFL reached epic heights because of the loyalty of fans like you to the names on the front of the jersey. The individual stardom of NBA players – as crafted by the NBA’s star-promoting structure – is another thing agents may be pointing to as players wanting the names on the back of the jersey to be rewarded.
As for winning championships, quarterbacks such as Tom Brady have taken less and it has allowed the Patriots to pay other pieces for a guy who’s greatest argument to be the GOAT is that he has five rings. (There’s more value in winning championships for quarterbacks. Just the way it is.)
But why are players taking less hailed as wanting to win more? The Patriots are never going to lower ticket prices because they are paying Brady $15 million while the Vikings are paying Kurt Cousins $27 million. He likes that.
As for Watt and Conner, both are great young players and both have the look of being building blocks. But of Conner puts up a couple of years of say, 1,200 rushing yards, 500 receiving yards and 14-16 TDs, you know what’s going to happen? Dude is going to want to be paid Le’Veon Bell dollars.
When this Patriots run ends, the way to winning championships will be maximizing a four-to-five year window of affordable quarterback deals with high dollar pieces around them.
Take the Rams, who extended Gurley with $45 million guaranteed and extended Aaron Donald with the biggest contract ever for a defensive lineman. The Rams were trying to deal for Khalil Mack before Chicago upped its offer. The Rams know they have two more years of Jared Goff on a team-friendly deal. It’s beyond just win baby. It’s just win now baby.
And the interesting divide of the future will be if a team like the Rams will pay a quarterback like Goff – a system guy with a lot of pieces and a great offensive-minded head coach – starting QB money in that $22-plus-million range or try to find another inexpensive quarterback and surround him with the best roster in the league?
Great question as always.
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From RJ
Did you see that Jemele Hill is finally done at ESPN. She is part of the reason why I quit watching that leftist biased media trash. You biased media folks realize your losing half the country with your biased views and forgetting that we only want sports from ESPN don’t you?
RJ –
Thanks for the question, and we did see that Jemele Hill is out at ESPN.
We have enjoyed her work. Do we agree with her on everything? No, of course not. Not sure any of us agree with anyone all the time.
Her chemistry with Michael Smith on “His & Hers” was excellent, and we understand the attempt at moving that show to SportsCenter and creating something new. (That idea makes way more sense than destroying something like Mike & Mike and creating two lesser versions of it that now compete against each other.)
Hill and Smith did not work and the backlash was quick and often unfair to be honest. But that’s the power of social media. Everyone has a voice now, and in most times, that’s a cool thing.
It’s funny, you know, because being a lightning rod in media used to be one of the most desired aspects possible. Think Letterman’s irreverence. Think Stern’s outlandishness.
But now, since the divide between view points has become so extreme and the vitriol has become so palatable, your assessment of “losing half the country” is true for anyone who has a view point, no?
And if you want SC hosts without a view point, then you will end up losing all your viewers for being boring.
Once again, thanks to all the folks who claim I am part of the left-leaning biased media. It gives me ammunition for the left-leaning folks who say I am part of the Trump-loving right-wing conspiracy.
Good times.
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From Charlton
Which happens first, Christ returns and judgement day is upon us or Packers season tickets for your great-grandchildren?
Charlton –
We called Vegas, and they have this as even on the board.
So let’s see as a time line, my son Lee is 11. His given name is Jerry Lee Greeson III. If he has a kid when he’s say 26, that’s 15 years. If Jerry Lee Greeson IV has a kid when he’s 26, that’s 41 years. If we put Jerry Lee Greeson V on the list now, and he calls about them when he’s 26, that would give him 67 years.
(That would make us 114, and by Goodness if we’re still kicking we’d go to Lambeau with V and kick back a couple of Co-Colas.)
For context, Darren Rovell tweeted this week that he has been on the Packers’ season ticket wait list for 12 years. When he signed up in 2006, he was 73,257 on the list. He has moved up 15,228 spots since and is at 58,029. That means Rovell has another 45.7 years at this pace.
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From Alejandro
Do you think that state sponsored sports gambling will lead to more uniform lines? None of the lines in the Fab 4 match up with mine. Will the lines be set by the individual state or will it depend on which Vegas oddsmaker each casino uses?
Big Al –
Alejandro, that’s an interesting question.
And in a previous life and previous job, we’d start with something like VegasInsider.com, which is what we used for the picks. (Side note: We did them last night. Played 18 this morning after getting the lil’ 5-at-10s to school.)
Back then – pre-Interwebs – it was the USA Today lines as our starting point.
But we frequently would slide the spread against the big local teams because people wanted to bet on Auburn or Georgia or Alabama. So if the USA Today had Alabama minus-21 and someone called and asked, “What’s the line on the Bama game?” We’d assume they wanted the Tide and answer “Alabama by 22.5.”
The lines are set for each entertainment broker – be him an independent local contractor or a big house like MGM – to have $100,000 on Georgia minus-31 and MTSU plus-31. That way the entertainment juice is $10K easy peasy lemon squeezy regardless of the outcome.
But if heavy action comes on one side (like say UGA minus-31) entertainment brokers will either a) move the line to entice more people to bet on MTSU or either leave it still because they like the action on the popular side.
So, if you see on a site like VegasInsider.com that say UGA is getting 80 percent of the money but the line has not moved dramatically, well, Vegas really likes the underdog and the set spread. Be very careful of those friends, because the reason bookies drive Cadillacs is one-way public trains.
Now if a line moves too much – especially if that line floats over some of the magic numbers – a lot of the pro entertainment hunters will play both sides, especially in the NFL when most games are decided by 3 points.
Great question.
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From Jules
For which-way Wednesday: Jay, if you were Kirby Smart, would you redshirt Justin Fields?
Jules –
Only if he gets injured. His skill set is too valuable to be honest. Or if he asks for it.
Plus, there’s the whole Knowshon Moreno comparison to Fields’ generational talent.
If you redshirt him he will be a first-round pick as a redshirt sophomore rather than a true junior.
Roll the dice and go.
Plus, there has to be an air of confidence in the Dogs’ recruiting room right now that oozes the belief of “Whomever leaves for the show, we’ll go get another five-star for that spot.”
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This week’s Rushmores
Rushmore of cartoon dogs: This one was tougher than expected, because we ended up having to leave off a couple of personal favs such as Droopy, Santa’s Little Helper and Deputy Dog. Snoopy is a no-doubter. So is Scooby Doo. (Scrappy Doo? Not so much) We think Pluto’s stature gets him there, and he’s way cooler than Goofy. (Goofy’s segment in the Mickey Mouse Christmas special on the DVD? Let’s just say it gets a little dusty in whichever room you are watching it.) And Brian Griffin in a mild upset.
Rushmore of musical nicknames: The Boss is pretty boss. The Velvet Fog for Mel Torme’ is awesome. The Chairman of the Board/Ol’ Blue Eyes for Sinatra is also aces. The King for Elvis says it all. (Country division: Red-headed Stranger, Man in Black, The Opossum, King George.) (Blues division: Satchmo, Gatemouth Clarence Brown, High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone, the King of Swing Benny Goodman, just ahead of Bleeding Gums Murphy from “The Simpsons.”)
Rushmore of basketball brothers: Wilkins are there. The Gasols. The Grants. Gus and Ray Williams from back in the day.
Rushmore of additions put on a hot dog: Mustard is far left, because of all the others, mustard and dog is enough. Chili is there. Same general idea as mustard. Onions. Cheese.
Enjoy the weekend friends.
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5-at-10: Friday mailbag on Steelers drama, point spreads, Rushmores, Redshirting Justin Fields?, and biased media
