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Weekend winners
› Luka’s Lakers. Look, the Lakers pulled off a stunning deal midseason to get a top-three NBA player in his prime. The biggest knock on Luka Dončić from Dallas’ camp was Luka’s indifference to conditioning. Welp, Luka got in the weight room and is so shredded he’s on the cover of this month’s “Men’s Health.” Then, on the first day they could, the Lakers inked Luka to a max three-year, $165 million deal. Luka celebrated by taking his entire team without the last name James to the Backstreet Boys concert at the Sphere in Vegas. LeBron James may be the face of the NBA still, but Luka Dončić is the face of the Lakers moving forward.
› Cameron Young landed his first PGA Tour win, something that everyone around the game wondered when it would happen, not if. Young’s runaway W at the Wyndham make actually put him in a spot to make a late case to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
› Trinity Rodman. Arguably the biggest young USWNT star returned to action from her injury and scored the game-winner. It was an emotional scene.
› Jay’s Plays. Shhh, but we’re close to getting back to the 90-plus units as we get closer to football season. While we are here, CBSsports.com has the top 20 teams against the spread and the bottom 20 teams against the spread since the start of 2022. Notre Dame, Oregon and Duke are the best at 23-12-1 ATS (65.7%) over the last three full seasons. Stanford, Texas A&M and Kent State are with worst at 11-24-1 ATS (31.4%)
Weekend losers
› Jerry Jones. All the faux marketing chatter about winning the offseason is fine, and Jones spent low-nine figures 35 years ago on the Dallas Cowboys, who are worth well into 11 figures now. So business-wise, dude’s Belichick. But if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan, the circus of distractions are counterproductive to making a Super Bowl run. Now, Jones’ bombastic style has alienated his team’s best player.
› The Yankees. Wow, tough weekend for the biggest brands in sports, right? The Yankees got swept by the Florida Marlins in a three-game series. And now former greats like Derek Jeter are taking shots at the franchise.
› Tiki Barber. In an unannounced move, the former three-time Pro Bowler and veteran CBS NFL analyst was replaced by CBS in favor of Charles Davis.
› The 5-at-10. After reading this list, because it made me originally dumbfounded and eventually angry. The list is one player for each NFL team who should have his number retired, and some of the names there are shocking. Baltimore has not retired Ray Lewis’ 52. Arizona has not retired Larry Fitzgerald’s 11. Cincy has not retired Anthony Munoz’ 78. Others: Ken Stabler with the Raiders, Kurt Warner with the Rams, Randy Moss with the Vikings, Drew Brees with the Saints and maybe most egregiously, Terry Bradshaw’s 12 has not been retired.
Kid gloves and preseason chatter
We are less than three weeks from the start of college football.
Yay, us.
There will be lots to get to in the coming days, but we’ll start with the “kid glove” treatment two SEC programs are giving their QB1s.
Tennessee posted a practice video of Colton Hood picking off an under-thrown pass. Upon further review, the Tennessee program decided to blur the QB in the video.
Wait, what?
This comes after the revelation last week that AU coach Hugh Freeze told AU DC DJ Durkin to go easy on QB1 Jackson Arnold because Arnold’s confidence is the team’s “No. 1 priority” in preseason drills.
Again, say what?
Before we get to paying attention to the antics on the field, we feel obligated to close the summer’s major college football talking point.
With the College Sports Commission in its infancy of trying to regulate and enforce some uniformity in the NIL era — which may be the biggest oxymoron this moron has ever written — one of the big names in college coaches is already disgruntled.
Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy — he’s still a man, but way past 40 — wonders aloud i the CSC has the authority to enforce the rules and wants one person in charge.
A college football czar? Hmmm, where have we heard that idea before?
“The CSC is scared right now, right?” Gundy told reporters over the weekend. “I mean, what power do they have? They’re already being sued.”
He ain’t wrong.
Thoughts?
This and that
› Rules, gang. Here’s Hargis with No. 7 on the Dynamite Dozen, Baylor safety Kolby Barrett, who has committed to Mississippi State.
› Here’s Paschall on a UT football transfer coming from Grand Valley State who is looking to get on the field quickly.
› Rest easy, Loni Anderson, who died over the weekend, a few days before her 80th birthday. For those of us of a certain age, at one point many moons ago, if Loni Anderson was not on top of the most beautiful people list, she was never outside the top few.
› I was stunned when the child actor who played Charlie in the original “Willy Wonka” told the New York Post how much he makes in royalties from the 1971 movie. I was blown away. He said he received between $8 and $9 every three months.
› The Stephen A. Smith vs. Michelle Obama social media war of words was not on my BINGO card.
› Did the MLB at the Speedway win or lose the weekend? On one hand, the Braves played and won, and the home run lap was cool. It set a MLB attendance record. But the rainout Saturday was a bummer, and the rescheduled Sunday make-up reportedly ran out of concessions.
Today’s questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
Multiple Choice Monday goes this way:
When should public school start?
> First day of August, like it does in Rhea and McMinn counties;
> First week of August, like does everywhere else in the 423;
> Week before Labor Day;
> Tuesday after Labor Day.
> Other.
As for today, August 4, let’s review:
Barack Obama is 64 today.
Roger Clemens is 63 today.
Billy Bob Thornton is 70 today. Have we done his Rushmore?
If we have, let’s do the sports Rushmore of “Rockets” and have some fun.