Weekend winners
Matt Stafford. The former Detroit QB was dealt to the L.A. Rams, who instantly became a very trendy and likable bunch for 2021 considering the pieces. Also, the Lions won because they got a QB in Jared Goff and a slew of draft capital, including two first-round picks. Also, the Houston Texans won, because if Matt Stafford at 32 was worth three draft picks and a bona fide NFL starting QB, then Deshaun Watson at 25 is going to bring a king's ransom.
Big 12-SEC challenge. That was fun, gang, and not just because Auburn snuck in the backdoor and covered the 14.5-point line against Baylor. It's worth mentioning that football should explore this too, and while we're here the NCAA tournament lessons from Saturday's cross-conference confrontations are clear. A) Oklahoma is going to be a really tough out come March. B) So is Florida, which is playing the basketball we thought it could play right now. C) Kansas is going to be wicked overrated. D) Baylor is LEE-git.
Tennessee fans. This has nothing to do with the Vols giving Kansas a house-call and rocking and chalking the Jayhawks. This is the other side of passion, the under-sold side of a fan base that has become an easy target from the national media members, including some the infamous VolsTwitter exposed for being too involved in the Currie-Schiano-gate-thingy. This is about the passion that raised more than $42K in less than 36 hours for the family of Kaden Salter, a UT football recruit whose father contracted COVID and has been hospitalized for two weeks.
Nick Saban. Yes, the-best-there-ever-was wins most weekends. And yes, as the rest of college football crosses its fingers hoping to hire guys who may work out, TBTEW fills assistant roles with former NFL head coaches and puts former college head coaches on staff as interns. This weekend, though, TBTEW won when a recruit released a video of the Alabama Almighty's recruiting pitch. Egad, it's cocky as all get-out. And 100% factual.
Aaron Rodgers. My man-crushes on athletes center on three guys: Tiger, LeBron and Aaron Rodgers. Yeah Ronald Acuña is closing in. So, while I would have preferred A-Rodg getting ready for Sunday's big date - and I'm super intrigued about would have been if the Rams had landed their first choice and dealt for Rodgers - it made my heart happy that the BIES (Best I Ever Saw) was unwinding with a suitcase of CoCoals in the back of a pick-up over the weekend. War 'Merica.
Weekend losers
The Voice. OK, I know this is not over the weekend, but I saw it over the weekend. Rewind: Alejandro asked us a couple of Friday's ago about the state of country music in general and Morgan Wallen in particular. I said Wallen is doing his best to save country music and dude may be the hottest name in all of music at this moment. Well, here's Wallen with a bona fide 'do on the NBC singing competition in 2014. He got dismissed. Oops. (Side note: My mullet is flat rocking right now, 'Dro.)
Patrick Reed. Yeah, like Rosie Perez' character in White Men Can't Jump told us, sometimes you lose when you win, and Reed is the golfing personification of those words. Dude was again involved in some sketchy rule debate, and even though he did almost the exact thing Rory McIlroy did on Saturday, there was little surprise that Reed was the focus of the discussion. The reason? Reed has played as lose with the rules of golf as the Bandit played with the rules of the road.
Baseball's future. Buckets, every story you see casts a very dark cloud on the negotiations between owners and players. Know this: When the best storyline about the future of the game is each side hoping for a 154-game - at best - season in 2021 and then who knows, well, there you go.
Boston Celtics. Love their core, and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are dudes, but looking around the rest of the roster is limited. And if we're talking duos, the Jays are not as dynamic as a few others around the league. Yes, they were one point short of beating the L.A. LeBron's - and the Celtics had two own-goal baskets to boot - but the shortcomings were clear.
Value of a dollar (and a pound). Man, as Joe Biden dips our country's quill into the endless well of ever-growing debt - the student-loan bailout is terrifying friends - across the pond we got word this weekend what Lionel Messi is worth. Again, worth is realistically defined as what someone is willing to pay, and Messi is Da Vinci valuable. While the Chiefs got Patrick Mahomes on a very team-friendly deal for half-a-billion for a decade, Messi got more than 555 million pounds. Over four years. Yes, that's more than $600 million for a presidential term. Oh my. Messi contract
Super Bowl time
Yeah, we wrestled with whether we should have a contest. There are loads of ways to put your money on the Big Game this Sunday. Loads
How about some of these prop bets, courtesy of SportsBettingDime.com of course):
How about odds for the first person/group/deity the MVP will thank after the game: Teammates (+250, bet $100 and win $250), Fans/city (+300), God (+500), Family (+600), health-care workers (+900), owner (+2500), Field (+7500).
Over/under of tallest player to score a TD is 6-feet-4.5 inches. Over/under weight of heaviest player to score a TD is 259.5 pounds. (You have to go over on both of those, right, since Travis Kelce is 6-5, 260 and you get Mike Evans - he's 6-5 - on the height prop too.)
Heck, there are Romo props - from his tie color to the over/under on "Let me tell you Jim" (2.0 - gotta go over there) to the over/under on the number of plays he calls in advance (2.5 - again, going over; big stage and expecting big things from the $17 million man).
(And we mentioned Morgan Wallen earlier, well, he's continuing the fight that Eric Church started, and Church will sign the anthem Sunday. Did you know that SportsBettingDime.com lists Church wearing his trademark sunglasses for the anthem at +900. Yes please. A lot.)
Yes, we love the prop bets. Always have.
So why not, let's roll a contest. I know it's a late start - probably should have rolled this out last week - so we'll see who plays along.
Entry with the most correct entries wins. Deal? Deal. Put your picks in the comments or email me at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
> Primary color of Jim Nantz tie (Blue is the favorite);
> Length of the national anthem, over/under 120.5 seconds;
> Head or tails;
> Player to score the first TD;
> Longest play over/under 44.5 yards;
> MVP;
> Spread, Chiefs minus-3.5;
> Total yards combined, over/under 765.5:
> Total points scored, over/under 56.5:
Who's in?
This and that
- Scary situation. Amber Alerts are always scary, but the Texas public safety folks sent a missive about a missing child for Chucky, the doll from Child's Play. Seriously.
- ESPN has made a lot of, shall we say, interesting decisions spending millions if not billions on broadcasting rights. This one though makes the most sense. ESPN is now looking to add the out-of-market Sunday Ticket package to its NFL coverage and put that on ESPN+. That would make ESPN+ a priority for millions of folks.
- Bill Walton continues to be a national treasure. That is all.
- The Max Preps high school All-American team is quite interesting, especially since Weber State has more incoming first-team picks than Auburn and Tennessee combined. And wow, the QB from Utah who was player of the year accounted for almost 80 TDs. In a season. Wow.
- Yes, Patrick Reed won - and lost - but Baylor grad Luke List made some coin with a 6-under 66 Sunday. List finished tied for 10th at 7 under overall, which was good for $168,125.
- You know the rules. Here's Paschall on the latest - and likely not the last - UT player to dip his toe in the transfer pond.
- You know the rules, part II. Here's Weeds on college hoops and he's right - hey, it's Weeds on college hoops - that the Saturday version of UT is Final Four good. But, after the last few weeks of watching UT, I think it was every bit as much about Kansas as it was about UT.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
As for today, Feb. 1, it was on this day that Seattle threw it on the goal line against Malcolm Butler and the Pats.
Space shuttle Columbia blew up on this day in 2003.
Boris Yeltsin was born on this day in 1931. (Side note: Used to work for a guy who would giggle every time Putin's name was mentioned. So there's that.)
Clark Gable would have been 120 today.
Rushmore of Clarks. Go, and let's have some Super Bowl contest fun.