Weekend winners (non-draft)
Jeremy Pruitt. Not many coaches outside of Athens or Clemson have come into the State of Alabama in recent years and nabbed the top football recruit. Pruitt and the Vols got a verbal commitment strong side defensive end Dylan Woods - the top player in Alabama and the 12th player overall according to 247sports.com - over the weekend. Here's more from TFP all-around ace David Paschall, because, well, it's about the SEC and we need the expert on this one.
Carmen Electra'. That lady has lived hard - she was directly in the full-go party circles of Prince and Dennis Rodman at different times. Still, she turned 48 a week ago today. And all things considered, she looked sharp in her segments in "The Last Dance" Sunday night.
An actual sporting event on the horizon. PGA players and local celebrities are going to play a golf tournament. Several PGA pros - and maybe Jordan Spieth - are expected to play as well as Tony Romo. But, there's next to zero details about any TV airing. Hello, Golf Channel, are you there? Dispatch the Bat Cart ASAP.
Nolan Ryan. On this day in 1983, Ryan became MLB's strikeout king with 3,509 at the tender age of 36. How's this for some dominance? Ryan finished with 5,714 Ks, which means after he set the record the first time, he had 2,205 more strikeouts, which more than Hall of Famers Roy Halladay, Catfish Hunter and Grover Alexander.
Versatile quarterbacks. We are going to have a complete draft winners and losers, but this is a big-picture systematic change across the league. Jalen Hurts was a second-round pick. Lamar Jackson is the NFL MVP. And now Taysom Hill gets a two-year, $21 million extension. Hill is an amazing case study: $21 million over two years for a back-up QB you trust is OK. But Hill has played almost 60 percent of his snaps on special teams and has thrown 13 career passes. And the Saints also have agreed to terms with Jameis Winston too. So the very threat of playing quarterback - and true willingness and ability to offer great roster versatility - is very attractive, and easily Hill's best quality. Because think of it this way: In Hill's two years, he has 64 carries, 22 receptions and those 13 pass attempts, so would you classify him more of a running back or a quarterback? And if you said the former, well, that $10.5 million average salary would make Hill the sixth-highest paid RB, behind David Johnson's $13 million per and Derrick Henry's $10.278 million tender. (In case you're wondering, Alvin Kamara enters the final year of his rookie deal that pays him on average of $964,443 per year.)
Weekend losers
The Last Dance. Loser, may be too tough a term, and I know I have a little more knowledge of those teams than most, but parts 3 and 4 felt more informatory than investigation. If the first two parts directly examined Jerry Krause as the villain, I guess the chapters 3 and 4 were about the Dennis Rodman and Phil Jackson back stories. Rodman has his own 30-for-30 which greatly details his exploits, and the Jackson-Tex Winter dynamic is pretty well known, right? I will say this: We did start to see some of the gambling circles around this team - and Jordan's fondness of gambling are well-documented - and we saw Michael's dad a lot late in chapter 4. Here's hoping that both of those topics are covered (or uncovered) next Sunday. Yes, it was fine TV, but the starving sports fan in the desert that was week 1, was the bloated-on-the-draft Sunday-stuff sports fan last night. And I thought it was pretty blah. I may be the only one, but that's my take.
Teshaun Hightower. The Tulane basketball who spent two years at Georgia before transferring was arrested over the weekend and charged with murder.
The thought of Chattanooga without minor league baseball. It's a very serious conversation that has very real results. Since the New York Times put the Lookouts on a possible contraction list late last year, this dark cloud has been part of the local baseball lexicon. Well, what we actually know is far outweighed by what we don't, as TFP all-around ace David Paschall notes here as the Lookouts refute a weekend report that advanced the doomsday scenario.
The thought of a fall without high school football. As crazy as it sounds, this excellent story from TFP sports editor and prep sports guru Stephen Hargis points clearly that the state of Tennessee is reviewing every possible path - including moving football back - to have the main money-maker in the TSSAA (and the individual schools) revenue stream up and going.
NFL draft winners, losers and random thoughts
I love the draft. You know this. Let's explore winners and losers from all across the different layers of the NFL draft.
Winner for TV personality: To a vast majority of the ESPN and NFL crew. Wow what an undertaking, and Daniel Jeremiah made the most of the spotlight ESPN offered. The NFL version of a Mel Kiper or Todd McShay (who was absent as he recovers from The Corona), Jeremiah was very prepared and analytically stat driven. I was impressed, and I love the draft. You know this.
Loser for TV personality: There are a slew of examples to offer, but here are two stories that encapsulated Booger McFarland's struggles as a real-time analyst during the draft. First, in Booger's words when he called Derrick Henry a "big back with above-average athletic ability." (Book also shared the breaking news tidbit that Nick Saban can really coach defense. Who knew?) Seriously. As for the abstract and ironical, well, after a Booger critique, apparently even in this greatly divided America, angst against Booger can unite the masses: "I don't know how the guy got, or keeps his job, and by the way I usually don't agree with Jay Greeson, thank God!" Good times.
Winner for the TV industry as a whole: The production value of having those players in their home and showing their families was great and entertaining. (Yes, the ESPN trying to be the Hallmark Channel was tired. Did Kleenex sponsor, the grab a tissue backstory segment?) There will be real value in that, and moving forward here's hoping there's a fair mix of the in-person and in-home angles. Side note: As expected this NFL draft set a river of records. The three-day average was 8.4 million, up 35 percent from the previous record; Day 1 averaged 15.6 million; Day 2 averaged 8.2 million; Day 3 averaged 4.2 million. (Those are three of the five most-watched sporting events during The Corona shutdown, ranking 1, 2, and 5 - with The Last Dance chapters 1 and 2 filling the other spots - in this time.)
Loser for the TV industry as a whole: Beyond the Tom Rinaldi treatment for almost every pick, whoever made the decision to put Luke Bryan on my screen on Saturday needs to be fired. Sweet buckets of concert shutdowns, there are a million acts that would have agreed to put a mini-convert on during the Draft, and Luke Bryan was someone's final answer.
Winner for college program: LSU's 14 draft picks tied a record for a seven-round draft, but the extreme early talent that came from the SEC was undeniable. A record 15 picks in round one. And the 40 picks through three rounds smashed the NFL previous record (SEC had 32 in '13), and maybe more amazingly, the next three conferences combined - Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 - combined for 41.
Loser for college program (tie): Michigan continues to underwhelm despite having a roster of 10 NFL draft picks. Also, according to ESPN stats and info, FSU had one player picked in this draft. One. FIU had two. In the modern draft era (since 1967) FSU had 246 players selected. (FIU had eight during that time.)
Winner NFL franchise: There are a lot of teams that had a lot of success, and the Baltimore Ravens filled almost every need, but in the day and age of the salary cap NFL, the San Francisco 49ers put on a clinic with only five picks. They dealt a good defensive tackle who was about to command a $60-million extension for a first-round pick that became Javon Kinlaw, the most talented defensive tackle in the draft not named Derrick Brown, who comes in on a rookie deal. They traded back and still got a top-five WR. But the feather in this weekend was dealing for Trent Williams, an All-Pro tackle who fills the void left by Joe Staley's retirement.
Loser NFL franchise: Green Bay. The Packers won 13 games and were a win from the Super Bowl. And they lost in the NFC title game because their defense couldn't get off the field. The Packers' two biggest strengths last year were at QB and RB. So of course they spent their first two picks on QB and RB. Foolish and borderline inexplicable.
Winner NFL draft pick: There are lots of options here, but I'm going deep into round 2 and say Cam Akers. Akers was the No. 1 running back coming out of high school and the Rams picked him at 52 overall. And considering that there's no more Todd Gurley, the path to 15-plus-carries a game is wide open.
Loser NFL draft pick: Jake Fromm. Wow, that had to be a painful way to spend a weekend with your name atop the "Best available" list for what felt like a week. (Here's more from Paschall, because, well, he's Paschall.)
Winner NFL player: Denver quarterback Drew Lock. Buckets, John Elway has added two electric WRs, a TE Lock is familiar with and Melvin Gordon at running. That's a lot of added firepower in an AFC West that will be a fight. (Jarrett Stidham is a close second here because the fact that the Patriots did not draft a QB is the biggest testament yet that
Loser NFL player: Aaron Rodgers. Man, he has to be ticked as heck, right?
Thoughts? (And coming later this week, we will offer grades and team-by-team analysis. Deal? Deal.)
This and that
- Speaking of the draft, according to my numbers Bill H. won the event. If you thought you sent an entry that had six correct picks and I missed it, please let me know. Congrats to Bill H. (email and I will send along the prize pack), who missed the first team to trade (San Fran) and the Falcons first pick (because no expected the Falcons to take a third-round corner in the middle of round 1).
- Moment of silence as one of the most recognizable voices in country music - the low boom guy from the Statler Brothers - died over the weekend. Rest easy Harold Reid.
- This is a pretty good side-by-side comparison of the Red Sox punishments that were announced to last week compared to the Astros punishments from earlier this year. Man, side question that I'm truly curious about: How long ago does that whole Astros scandal feel like these days? Like six months right? A year maybe? The announcement was late January and it was the buzz of early parts of spring training just last month.
- If you are expecting a more-entertaining, trash-talking match when Tiger, Phil Peyton and Brady play next money, well, don't. Here are some details from Tiger over the weekend. So it goes, but we're all going to be watching. In truth, the format is more important in this one than the smack talk, especially with what would be expected to be far less TV and sound coverage as the last run of this.
Today's questions
Weekend winners or losers. Favorite parts of the draft, go?
Thoughts on "The Last Dance" on Sunday?
Discuss.
Would you feel comfortable going to a sit-down restaurant and eating there? No wrong answer, just wondering.
On this day, April 27, Casey Kasem was born in 1932. Ulysses S. Grant was born on this day in 1822.
Also, Samuel Morse was born on this day in 1791.
Rushmore of 'code' and be creative.