5-at-10: Friday mailbag on more elephants in the room, the anthem, Status of Heupel's staff

Greeson thumbnail for lead photo only
Greeson thumbnail for lead photo only

From Chas

- Why are there so very few conservatives among the A-list entertainers?

- Who's greater Gronk or T-Gon?

- Why can't more of us apply logic to the inter web morass?

- Have you been watching? If not, justify yourself, please sir.

Chas-

You got your quota this week, but several of your questions struck a cord so I lumped them all together.

In no particular order and trying to move as quickly as I can so it's a full mailbag and not a one male bag. (See what I did there Spy?)

I'll take Rob Gronkowski over Tony Gonzalez, who was nowhere close to the blocker Gronk. Plus, especially at the tail end of his career, Gonzalez felt more like a compiler than the match-up nightmare Gronk has always been.

Logic can not compete with passion and volume, plus logical people realize that it's completely illogical to try to have a logical conversation with overly passionate and under-logiced participants. It's the whole expecting different results thing, and eventually most of the logical folks realize it's a useless exercise and shrug their shoulders and move along, why the majority of interweb interlopers either continue to peddle nonsense or worse, claim victory over the logical.

Similar to the logical question in some regards in that I think there are more conservatives among A-listers than we may realize, they just consistently keep their politics - and their Christianity - to themselves. This has become a career survival technique, because the far right does not get the benefit of the doubt from the court of public opinion as the far left does, and in a lot of ways conservatives are more tolerant than liberals.

As for the 'are you watching' he was asking about the impeachment process of former President Trump, and even called it the biggest elephant in the room.

The main reason I have not broached it at all to this point is two-fold. First, while everyone who has visited this place more than twice knows, I'm fine to discuss anything, sports to religion to, as Colonel Nathan Jessup told Daniel Kaffee, "My favorite color?" But this has always been at least in most part based in sports.

My second part is having the patience to wait and see how this thing plays out. Yes, I'm watching it as often as I can, and have been following along on it. And I understand the conflicting and intersecting concerns.

There should be consequences from the atrocities at the Capitol in early January. Is this the right one, and would the consequences from that potential consequence be good for the country? Not sure I'm smart enough to answer that.

One positive that would come of it, if Trump is impeached would be that he would not be a participant in future elections.

So there's that.

To the rest of the bag.

From several of you

What's going on in Knoxville in terms of a football staff?

Gang-

Fair question, and while this is certainly not something anyone would wanted to be done in a rush, the ticking clock is becoming Tick-Tock Croc-level loud. And ever-present.

Consider that new head coach Josh Heupel said last week he was likely going to be done on Monday. Well, we're to Friday - several days after Monday last I checked and still no word on a DC.

There is so much to do, too, considering the importance of the recruiting cycle for the Class of 2022 as well as the impact names in the transfer portal that UT needs to start checking some of these coaching boxes ASAP.

It also makes you wonder how many people are telling Heupel, "Thanks but not thanks" for what will be a bumpy fall in '21 and will be an arduous rebuild in an SEC where UT may have a roster that ranks ahead of only Vandy in terms of star power right now.

That said, here's some news from TFP college football guru David S. Paschall that the Vols have reportedly agreed to terms with Jerry Mack - who certainly is a better football coach than Bernie Mac, or even Jerry Reed for that matter - and Rodney Garner.

As for Garner, dude recruits his clipboard off, but he also has been know to tightrope the jagged edge of NCAA rules and guidelines, and with UT still waiting for the NCAA ruling after self-reporting some major violations under Jeremy Pruitt, well, there's not going to be a whole lot of wiggle room in that department.

Also, here's today's A2 column on the Hamilton County Commission trying to wiggle through a state statute and be in position to vote on and decide their salaries for being 'public' servants. What a terrible look, especially in a time when we as a nation are having an important conversation about who among us needs governmental assistance in a time of a pandemic, and these clowns want to play a shell game to be in position to give themselves a bigger raise than the rest of the county employees.

(Side note: Thought this story was very interesting, as Bobby Kennedy's boy was booted from Instagram for posting what is being called misinformation about COVID vaccines.)

(Side note on the side note: Man, the cyber space that is social media and what is allowed and not allowed is a riddle wrapped in an enigma surrounded by a Rubik's cube, enveloped by a mystery buried in quagmire. How about this paragraph from that story above: "Earlier this week Facebook announced it would ban ads on its platform that discourage vaccinations - with an exception carved out for ads about government vaccine policies. Unpaid posts by people or groups that discourage vaccinations will still be allowed." And I'm 100% pro-vaccine, but the ability to pick a side by a platform with that much power is unsettling.)

As for the Rushmores-

Rushmore of best pro athlete accomplishment over 40: Brady doing this at 43; Jack in '86; Foreman winning the heavyweight title in 1994 at 45; Nolan dropping his seventh and final no-no in 1991 at 44. (And major visor tip to Dana Torres, who won three silver medals in swimming at the 2008 Olympics at the tender age of 41.)

Rushmore of Joe Pesci movies: Goodfellas, Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny, Casino. (Side question: Is the Irishman worth the extreme time commitment?)

Rushmore of golf nicknames: Big Easy, Shark, Golden Bear and of course The King. (With all apologies to the Walrus and Boom Boom.)

Rushmore of Airplane! quotes, and this is the hardest one we have done in a while, and all do respect to the Auto Pilot and his cigarette: Stewardess, I speak Jive (and the entire exchange between Beaver Cleaver's momma and the two Black guys on the plane), You ever see grown man naked?, I am serious and don't call me Shirley, Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. (And there are so many good ones, never mind the endless physical comedy gags from Kareem in his Lakers shorts to the Auto Pilot to the flight attendant playing guitar and knocking the IV out of that girl's arm, to the guy pouring gasoline on himself listening to Ted Stryker's story, to Ted's 'drinking' problem, to the scene of Ted teaching the natives basketball to the - well, I gotta get going. What a classic.)

From Pat

Jay,

I'm glad your kids are back in school. It's about time. As I told you before, my 9 year old granddaughter has been going 5 days a week since September with no problems I'm aware of.

The music(?) at the Super Bowl was God awful, starting with the National Anthem, America, etc. Putting a bad country singer with a good R&B singer? Whose idea was that? Trump?

Pat-

I am a fan of Eric Church. I had never heard of the lady he sang the anthem with. I was not overly impressed with the performance, especially on the 30th anniversary of Whitney's show-stopper in 1991. And the SportsCenter special on Whitney's rendition was awesome to be honest. Great in fact and worth looking it up if you have the time.

That said, it feels really swell to have a discussion about the anthem and it not include protests, kneeling, stopping the tradition or forcing people to adhere to it, don't you think?

Also, this look at the back-and-forth between Mark Cuban's Mavericks and the NBA was very well done.

From Mike W

Jay, thanks so much for having the 5-at-10, and for the Super Bowl contest. I enjoy your writing and look forward to my (gift card).

I have a question for you. Which QB on a new team do you think will be the biggest story of next season? I miss the NFL already.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Mike W-

Congrats, and enjoy.

There are several QB storylines this offseason that are worthy of following. In fact, there's a chance that half the league will have a new starter for the season opener in '21 compared to last season's first weekend.

Teams that will have the same QB for sure: Chiefs, Bucs, Packers, Bills, Ravens, Chargers, Bengals, Browns, Titans and Cardinals.

That means as many as 22 teams could have some QB shake-up, and includes current superstars Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson as well as future Hall of Famers Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger and Hall of Fame fringe guys like Matt Ryan and Matt Stafford, who has already been dealt from Detroit to the L.A. Rams.

Now add in the craziness of a first round that has five QB names prominently scribbled in dark pencil if not ink.

The two clear game-changers for me are Dak Prescott and Watson, and the latter of those two in the right situation makes a good team a Super Bowl contender.

The places that offer the most intrigue in terms of destinations, to me, are Indianapolis and San Francisco. And, depending on what they do with Dak, Dallas.

Another place that has acquired a lot of talented pieces and could really take off with the right guy pulling the trigger is Washington.

Great question, congrats and I miss the NFL too.

From A Reader

"Right to the Point".

"no need for white people to use the N-word. None". Why just "white" people. See screen shots in attachments.
Different rules for different people. This is why our country is divided. If the use of this word is so hurtful no one should use it.
Just like your paper capitalizing the word black and not white all throughout the paper. This causes division. I really read the paper for the comics anyway. Too bad you have to be part of the problem.

Gang-

There you go friends.

Hey, at least not all the illogical folks are on social media. Some read the paper for the comics.

Enjoy the weekend friends.

photo Jay Greeson

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