Transfer portal
We're wrapping up SEC Media Days here in Hoover, Alabama.
Hope your cats are enjoying the intel from Press Row.
Today I wrote about the transfer portal, a topic that Nick Saban broached on Wednesday. Here's my column on it.
I could have gone a little deeper in truth.
I think the transfer portal should stay open. I, unlike Saban, think the waivers are a welcome wrinkle to the process. Has it been abused? Maybe a time or three. (Tate Martell we're looking at you son.)
What I could have added was that every player gets one freebie. Then they have to sit a year for each transfer after that.
But limiting transfers really gives the negative duplicity of the baseline of college sports an extra layer of confusion.
We all long for the amateur days of student-athletes and try like the dickens to remind ourselves (some would say kid ourselves) that the first world is as important as the second.
Well, every other student at every other university has the ability to pick and go wherever and whenever they would like.
Whether that hurts Saban's roster to not.
THE Open
Ah, THE Open in THE a.m. Good times.
Well, unless you are David Duval, who took a 13, yes, a 13, on the par-5 seventh this morning. Egad. Hey I get it. I'd be playing in that puppy as long as they would have me.
As for the rest of the field, well, one of the crazy things about THE Open is that you'll see a couple of names you could not pick out of a crowd on the leaderboard, especially Thursday and Friday.
Speaking of dreadful starts, Rory McIlroy, a guy I desperately wanted to make a run in this thing, opened with a quad this morning.
Also of note, as we get ready to chat with SEC commish Greg Sankey, at this time Luke List was even through 10 and Keith Mitchell is 1 under through 4.
War Chattanooga golfers.
Too far
I am a conservative. Most of you know this.
I have voted almost exclusively Republican for most of my 30 voting years. (Yes, I cast my first vote for H.W. Bush in '88 as a high school senior.)
I am happy to discuss the topics, good and less than good, of our modern political realm.
It's a strange time. An unprecedented time.
So many of the items of have become so divisive that the middle ground feels partly like an island that is isolated and partly like a mirage that may or may not actually appear.
To make that shrinking middle even more desolate, the galvanization of importance on single individual issues for so many - be them abortion, or immigration, or health care, or gun rights or what have you - has pulled each side away from compromise and toward generalized party polarization.
Trump made hay in 2016 with a focus on that, a couple of slogans and embracing a wide swath of folks who felt ignored by the federal government political machine that they believed was trying to serve everyone but them.
He got jump-started on his way to the White House in large part by delivering a "Drain the Swamp" message that resonated with a lot of middle American.
Well, where is that guy and what happened on his pledge to do just that?
Because where we are now shows to me at least that Trump has become an oversized part of the Swamp and is slingin' mud like the rest of D.C.
I say this fully realizing that the president - this one and everyone before him - is normally only as good as our economy will allow him to be. In that case, Trump's successes are clear.
But it's hard to watch - as someone who represents the rank and file of the Republican Party for the last half century - as Trump and his rally-goers participate in "Send Her Back" chants that quite frankly are ugly and truly unAmerican.
More than that, it's disappointing. And hateful.
It also makes you wonder who is next? Am I the next target of the sycophant denizens because I dare utter a critical word about their demigod?
Agree or disagree, that's the process. Negotiate or stonewall, that's a strategy.
But vitriol this vile, makes me shake my head. And it makes me worry about the future of the Republican party and our country's ability to navigate the divide.
Mostly, it makes me sad.
This and that
- Texas A&M picked up a commitment from Haynes King, who is the No. 1 QB in the country in ESPN's view. He picked the Aggies over Tennessee and Auburn, among others.
- Because everyone loves a good list, here's one of interest from StadiumTalk.com, which listed the best high school for sports in each state. In Georgia, it picked Parkview, which is a pretty excellent choice. Tennessee? The Baylor School, which also s a pretty excellent choice.
- Speaking of SEC Media Days, well,the crew across radio row from us has a TV screen and the EA Sports college football game simulating all day. The rosters have been updated and to tell you the truth, I have been enthralled by the simulations. This morning, Auburn walked Georgia to the woodshed 44-20. (Sorry Jules and 'Dro.)
- One more SEC media day item: Pretty cool personal and professional redirection for a guy like Derek Mason at Vanderbilt. Dude went from replacing the man to being the man. He went from Vandy wondering if they should keep him to now likely wondering if they will be able to keep him.
- Braves played. Braves lost. Side note: Milwaukee is pretty choice and Christian Yelich is a boss.
- Speaking of the Braves, well, remember when Austin Riley was the toast of baseball? Yeah, me neither. After crushing everything in sight in May - .356/.397/.746 with seven homers and 20 RBIs in 59 ABs - the book is out on the Braves right-handed rookie. And it might as well be written by Stephen King, because the most recent chapter is quite horrifying. In July, Riley is 7-for-44 (.159) with two homers and 19 Ks.
- OK, this may be the worst nightmare I have seen in sometime. Seriously, and if you do not want to have your day ruined, just skip ahead to the question and pretend you did not see this. Seriously.
Today's questions
If you were David Duval would you keep teeing it up at THE Open?
Transfer portal, friend or foe?
As for today, July 18, Detroit filed for bankruptcy on this day in 2013.
Billy Joel's Glass Houses topped the charts on this day in 1980. I had that album - like really, the album.
On this day 43 years ago Nadia Comaneci notched the first 10 in Olympic gymnastics.
John Glenn would have been 98 today. #AmericanHero.
On this day 20 years ago, Jean van de Velde made triple bogey on the 72nd hole and lost the British Open to Paul Laurie.
Rushmore of golf's biggest gaffes. Go, and remember the mailbag.