Weekend winners
Dads. Hope everyone had a great Father's Day. I know I did. I hope you still have your dad, and I hope you reminded him Sunday of something he did that made a difference in your life. I love you Pop.
Nelson Cruz. The winner of the Muhammad Ali honors ESPY for all-around good-dudeness, Cruz's raw and unfiltered emotions about winning was easily the highlight of the annual ESPN award show.
Webb Simpson. With a win at Hilton Head, Simpson moved to the top of the Fed Ex points chase. Dude was supremely sharp Sunday with a 64. (While we are here, Daniel Berger is now at 32 consecutive rounds at par or better on the PGA Tour. Berger finished two back of Simpson.)
Tiz the Law. The horse sprinted to the front and won the Belmont. Nice name, huh? Well, surprised it wasn't changed among our fervor to defund law enforcement agencies around the country.
Peyton Manning. As TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer shares with us here, Manning's generosity and grace are perpetual examples not for what superstars should be but what we should all aspire to.
Weekend losers
The (Bleep)hole who put the noose in Bubba Wallace's area at Talladega. Sunday's NASCAR race was postponed by weather. But the breaking news Sunday night had nothing to do with rain or rescheduled details. To be honest I expected attempts so fly the Confederate Flag, which NASCAR banned two weeks ago. But this? Dang, there are not words. And to think that with tighter restrictions - only 5,000 fans were allowed Sunday - for everyone, for someone to get access to Wallace's driving area is especially troubling. (While we are here, NASCAR continues to make every right decision during this time of social unrest, because I'm sure there was an initial thought of trying to cover this up.)
Chip Kelly. When your players are not ready to trust you with their health, there are some serious program issues, no?
The Tennessean. More than 99 times out of 100 - closer to 9,999 out of 10,000 - I refuse to point to the mistakes made by newspapers. It's not a ink-stained thin black line, mind you. It's just every time you point out another newspaper's mistake, you will inevitably make one just as noticeable. Well, there are not many newspaper mistakes as big or noticeable as the one the Tennessean made over the weekend when they ran a religious ad with pictures of Trump and the Pope claiming a pseudo-religious "prophecy," including an impending nuclear attack in Nashville by "Islam."
Max Rohskopf's corner folks. It's a pretty simple rule of thumb right? When your fighter says to stop the fight, you stop the fight right? Well, Max asked his corner guys nine times - cue Ferris Bueller - to stop the fight and they ignored him.
Nick Watney. Watney became the first PGA player at a tournament to test positive for Corona. Thankfully, Luke List, the former Baylor School star who played the first two rounds with Watney, did not test positive. (Side note: Here's Justin Thomas calling out the Hilton Head area for being a "zoo" that, as Thomas described, is not taking the Corona seriously.)
COVID uncertainty
My confidence for sports returning at all is dwindling. Quickly.
Forget baseball and its problematic millionaires and billionaires who are fighting for dimes in this. And baseball is doing its dangedest to make us forget it.
With each passing day, I become more and more worried that none of the major team sports will see competition in 2020, and yes, that includes football.
Dozens of college players at LSU and Clemson among other places make the college football questions not if but how many. And speaking of college football, the No. 1 sport for the majority of regulars around these parts, have you pondered the following questions:
> Beyond Kelly, there has to be several teams - never mind several hundred parents - really concerned about the goals of their head coach in particular and the sport in general;
> We are in a place in which conventional wisdom points us that programs would be wise for the entire program to go ahead and get the Corona at the same time, build up immunities and move ahead;
> And unlike the questions MLB, NBA and NFL players are asking themselves - whether taking the health risk is worth the big money in their contracts - college football players are pondering whether rolling the health dice is worth getting free books and a seat in Mrs. Jacobson's online Psych 301 class.
I believe the worst is behind us. But in this day and age of uncertainty - here's a Wall Street Journal story about inconsistent test results, which terrifyingly puts us closer back to square 1 than any type of our next normal - does anyone see any reason to feel confident about anything involving Corona these days.
This and that
- Das Prescott did not get a long-term deal yet, but he's going to make $31-plus million for playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. That's a good day.
- Speaking of Ali earlier, this story is worth your time. Ali's son Muhammad Ali Jr. thinks his famous father who was arguably the greatest heavyweight of all-time and among the greatest social change engines in the history of sports would have hated "Black Lives Matter." Here are some of the quotes Ali Jr. gave The New York Post: "Don't bust up (bleep), don't trash the place,. You can peacefully protest. My father would have said, 'They ain't nothing but devils.' My father said, 'all lives matter.' I don't think he'd agree. I think (BLM movement) is racist. It's not just black lives matter, white lives matter, Chinese lives matter, all lives matter, everybody's life matters. God loves everyone - he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong no matter who it is."
- Enjoyed this story of Louis Dampier, the former UK marksman who was a head of his time in terms of shooting and style.
- You know the rules. Here's TFP college football expert David Paschall starting the list of his five most memorable SEC football games of the 2010s. This one is a personal favorite, and here's betting this is not the only miraculous Auburn win in an Iron Bowl among his five.
- Wow the statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside of the American Museum of Natural History will be removed because, in large part, Roosevelt's role in colonial expansion. Wow. Simply wow. Unbelievable. And I wrote several days ago about the cancel culture coming for Gone With the Wind. Now, they are coming for Night at the Museum, too.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Were there any real winners?
Side question: How boss would it be for Bubba Wallace to win the rescheduled race today? Side note about the side question: There was a time when NASCAR would no-doubt make this happen. At the heyday of Brian France, Wallace would have like 12 billion octane fuel and a restrictor plate with holes the size of softballs. Know that.
Multiple choice Monday: Which of these is the most likely scenario for college football?
A) Season happens without incident
B) Season delayed
C) Season shortened
D) Season canceled
As for this day, June 22, well happy birthday to one of my personal heroes. Kris Kristofferson is 84 today.
Pistol Pete would have been 73 today.
On this day in 1977, The Rescuers was released. Enjoyed that one.
On this day in 1937, Joe Louis KO'ed James J Braddock in 18 - yes, 18 - to become the heavyweight champ.
Meryl Streep is 71 today. Overrated? Discuss.
Rushmore of best currently working actresses. Go.