5-at-10: Weekend winners and losers, Tennessee eyeing start of gambling operations, Rushmore of military/war-time quotes

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates after leading his team to an overtime victory against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game Sunday night.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates after leading his team to an overtime victory against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game Sunday night.

Weekend winners

Mike Leach and those lucky folks who get to cover college football's most famous and beloved pirate. Here's Mike's answer when asked about wearing cargo shorts - he is to the cargo short what Coach Khaki is to khakis - rather than athletic shorts. (Don't you ever change coach. Ever. And yes, the phrase, "your stuff flaps all over the place" was used. Ever, coach. EVER.)

Tom Brady. And yes, we could put Brady on this list every Monday. His life is pretty excellent all things considered. Dude got an $8 million raise this year and a couple of years added to his contract. Saw this on Twitter, via Darren Rovell: Including the 2019 season, Brady has made $235 million playing football. That's less than half of what the Mrs. (supermodel Gisele Bundchen) has made as a model. Gisele has pocketed $488 million. This is also a win for the Pats, who are still getting a bargain on a Super Bowl-level QB in today's market.

J.T. Poston. Dude went bogey free - yes, bogey free for 72 stinkin' holes - and grabbed his first PGA win. The final tally was 51 pars, 20 birdies and an eagle for 22 under. The hardcore math may have been even more impressive: Poston played 72 holes and made two 5s . Yes, two. How rare is that, well, considering that the last two times a PGA player has won a tournament without a bogey were Sunday and in 1974 when Lee Trevino did it, well, it makes a hole-in-one look pretty commonplace.

The volunteers and those who put a lot of sweat equity into making some serious upgrades at Brainerd High School. Good job folks.

Weekend losers

Society in general. Man, can we stop shooting each other. And can we stop politicizing tragedies of this magnitude. Also, and this may be too much, but can we stop saying racism is part of everything. My heart is heavy for the loss. My hope is dampened for the future. My head is hurting at the lack of ideas and leadership - from all sides, because if you want to point a finger at Trump, and not saying he is blameless, then you best be just as appalled at the litany of Democrats falling all over themselves to get in front of a microphone after these shootings. We have serious problems - terrorism, crime, mental health issues, gun control - that need serious solutions, and I'm not sure I've seen or heard a leader who can affect true and meaningful change amid our national divide.

Hamilton County school system. Speaking of inserting race into every situation, someone has some splainin' to do considering the revelations of the slideshow from teacher training last Friday. And the "misinterpreted" mumbo-jumbo does not cut it. Here's more. One of the slides said this: "People of color cannot be racist because they lack the institutional power to affect white lives." Hard to misinterpret the direct words gang.

Every Red Sox starting pitcher since Luis Tiant. Holy buckets of bombs by the Bronx Bombers, Spy. A four-game sweep by the Yankees included 26 total runs allowed. Here's the combined line for the four starting pitchers Boston sent to the mound against the Yankees: 16 innings, 22 earned runs, 31 hits allowed.

PGA players who lost their card. At the other end of the spectrum from the magical story that was J.T. Poston, there were a slew of familiar names who finished outside the top 125 and are left looking for a way to get back into full card-carrying status. Among those names are Martin Kaymer, who has not won anywhere in the world since the 2014 U.S. Open and his five-year exemption is spent, and former Baylor School star and two-time PGA winner Harris English, who finished 149th to get conditional status for next year. The top 25 finishers at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals later this month will earn Tour cards.

Topps. Yes, we're digging a bit here - sue me, I was in a sports-free zone for most of the week and spent Saturday driving and don't get me started on Atlanta traffic egad, it was bumper-to-bumper at 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon for Pete Goodyear's sake Get off my lawn, and turn down that blasted rock-n-roll - but the baseball card-maker made a kind of big, if not understandable mistake. They called Indians pitcher Shane Bieber "Justin" and who can blame them really. And the sentence "Justin was particularly comfortable on the road" makes a lot of sense for a world-renown musical act. And to be fair, Topps' response of "Is it too late to say sorry?" was just about perfect.

Sneaky announcement

OK, understandably there was a lot of big-time headlines and head-shaking news - nationally and locally - over the last few days.

But add this one to the list.

According to Brian Pempus of TnBets.com, Tennessee has circled January as the starting point for legalized online betting in the state.

The original launch hope, according to Rep. Rick Staples, who sponsored the legislation, was in October, but that was not doable.

Staples told TN Bets: "It will be November at the earliest. I have a pin stuck in January, in time for the NBA playoffs and March Madness in the spring. I really do believe that by the time the Steelers play in the Super Bowl in February, people will be able to place wagers in Tennessee."

Staples' unrealistic pick of the Steelers aside, the fact that Tennessee is in position to start later this year or early next is pretty impressive, considering Tennessee is the only state to pass sports gambling legislation without a brick and mortar betting operation or casino.

Giddy-up.

This and that

- Visor tip to college football junkie Phil Steele for this leg work tabulating the SEC regular-season conference record over the last 10 years. Wow, we all knew Alabama was dominant. Did you know it was this dominant? Alabama (71-9), Georgia, LSU (55-25), Florida (50-30), Auburn (43-37), South Carolina (42-38), Texas A&M (30-26), Missouri (27-29), Miss St (37-43), Ole Miss, Arkansas (28-52), Tennessee (25-55), Kentucky (24-56), Vanderbilt (21-59). The gap from 4 to 9 (Florida to Mississippi State) is tighter than the gap between 1 and 2 (Alabama to Georgia and LSU).

- Baker Mayfield is now the leader in the club house for the athletes chugging beer at sporting events. Baker went all Frank the Tank at the Indians game this weekend and shot-gunned a beer. To make matters even more challenging, he did it with one of those nasty Miller Lites. Gross.

- Didn't see this last week, but certainly worth posting. Here, according to 247sports, are the top 25 facilities in college football. Clemson is 1, Oregon is 2, and the SEC has the programs ranked 3 (Texas A&M), 4 (Alabama), 6 (South Carolina), 8 (Tennessee), 9 (LSU), 11 (Georgia), 13 (Kentucky), 15 (Auburn), 22 (Arkansas), and 25 (Florida). Side question: Anyone else shocked that Florida is that low? (According to the story, the Gators are set for a dramatic rise with a 2021 completion of a $85 million facility expansion and upgrade.

- Speaking of excellent lists and tidbits - did I mention that we are like 20 days from the start of college football; Giddy-up - this from ESPN betting writer David Purdum, who is aces by the way. Best against the spread records in non-conference games last 5 years: Air Force (18-5), Duke (18-5-1), Liberty (11-4), Eastern Michigan (16-6), Ohio (17-7); Worst against the spread records in non-conference games last 5 years: UConn (2-17-2), Pitt (6-17-1), Charlotte (4-11), UCLA (5-13), Oregon (6-13-1).

- And this one, also from Purdum: Syracuse is the most popular win-total bet this season. The Orange started at 5 and is now at 7.5 after a ton of action on the over.

- Anyone else glad to see the Braves will not have to play the Reds again this season?

Today's questions

Weekend winners and losers. Discuss.

As for today, Aug. 5, let's review.

Williams Wallace was captured on this day in 1305. That stupid Robert the Bruce. Traitor.

Patrick Ewing is 57 today. Who thought Ewing was older than that. Heck Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) is 62.

On this day, Admiral Farragut prevailed in the battle of Mobile Bay and uttered the phrase, "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead."

Rushmore of best battle-field quotes.

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