Sports. Wow, what a weekend for sports fans, right? Something everywhere, even with the NFL intrigue of cut day.
The 5-at-10 III. I've likely called my namesake 5-at-10 Jr. around these parts before, but actually, that's me. My son is a III. And as of today, he's a teenager. Had a shindig Sunday - good times. He got some great stuff. He's actually in the yard flying a new drone as we type. Man, where do the years go? Side note: Want to know what he was excited about as anything? Being able to ride in the front seat now. Side question about the side note? Man, waiting until being a teenager to ride shotgun may be the sneaky, biggest societal change this side of 8-track, VCRs and smoking being acceptable everywhere, from airplanes to movie theaters. When I was really young, I can remember riding in the very back in the pop-up seat in the Ford LTD wood-paneled wagon. Heck, I can remember riding to the ballpark in the back of Pop's truck, sitting in a lawn chair, Granny Clampett style. Side note, part II: He joined his first fantasy football league over the weekend - he Zoomed it in Weston Wamp's league on ESPN 105.1 the Zone Saturday morning - and he drafted quite well.
Dustin Johnson. Yes, there's one more round to complete, but dude is flushing his driver and when that happens, he's going to have wedges into 475-yard par 4s and mid-irons into par-5s. And if he's grooving it off the tee this today, his 5 shot lead may as well be 15.
Tennessee Titans. Well, how about that 11th hour addition, huh? A Titans defense that was very good last year and has great promise but was craving an edge presence adds Jadeveon Clowney for a discount price. The AFC South is very getable, too, considering the Jags are the worst team in the league and the Colts with a new QB and the Texans filled with questions.
Freddie Freeman. How's this for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday at work over a holiday weekend? Freeman was 3-for-10 with three walks, four runs and eight RBIs because of the first two grand slams of his MLB career. If he played the 60-game abbreviated schedule at that pace he'd finish the shortened season with a .300/.500/1.000 slash line with 40 homers and 160 RBIs. Yeah, those are MVP numbers for sure.
Weekend losers
Folks not following the rules in this fight against the Corona. Here's a story about Northeastern kicking CoVid violators out of school, and the conversation on Twitter was centered on "Who's to blame?" What? The rules were posted, and gang, here's how the world works: While you may not like or even agree with some rules, if you break them there are penalties to pay, everything from not buckling a seat belt to knocking someone out. And those kids violated the rules. Yes, losing the almost $40,000 in tuition stings, but hey.
The Derby. Betting was down 52 percent, a number the organizers blame on the lack of fans. OK. But the TV numbers were historically bad. Saturday's race averaged a 4.8 rating and 8.3 million viewers, the lowest numbers by far since data was kept starting in 1988. The previous low was 9.1 million viewers in 2000. Saturday's numbers were down from a 9.4 rating and 16.3 million viewers from last year.
The real world impact of Corona on college towns. Here's a list that includes Tuscaloosa and Auburn on the top 30 towns that could go bankrupt if college is cancelled this year. College Park, the home of the University of Maryland, was ranked as the most college-dependent town on the list.
California school system. Seriously, rewriting your history curriculum around the 1619 project from the New York Times is like Tennessee shaping its lessons around the 5-at-10's weekend winners. And restructuring history to say that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery is amazingly recently convenient. Seriously, when did we get to this place? From the conversation in the TFP about should we or shouldn't we teach history to rewriting history because of perceptions and politically persuaded points of view is worst than stupid. It's dangerous. Societies that are unaware of or purposefully unconcerned with their history - good and bad - are doomed to repeat it.
Novak Djokovic. Dude was a lead-pipe cinch to win the U.S. Open until he lost his cool and smacked a tennis ball out of frustration that struck a line judge in the neck. Then the Joker got DQed.
5-at-10 picks. We started 2-3 because Memphis took its foot off the gas and let Arkansas State score two TDs in the final five minutes and UAB let Spy play late in each half, giving away multiple scores with a 28-7 lead before the half and a 45-21 lead midway through the fourth. Let's go Navy tonight. Who's with me.
Football is good
Hey, happy Labor Day friends. And again happy birthday to 5-10-3, who is the big 13 today.
(Side question: Who had the better fantasy draft, father or son? He picked sixth and got a starting group of Alvin Kamara and De'Andre Swift at RB, Julio Jones and Amari Cooper at WR, TE Tyler Higbee and QB Tom Brady. I got Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Chris Carson at RB, DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Lockett at WR and the Falcons duo of Hayden Hurst and Matt Ryan at TE-QB. Thoughts?)
That said, we attended our third high school football game of the young season, and with every passing game - be it Friday nights around town or the skeleton crews at college games throughout the South on Saturday - my view is only reinforced and galvanized that the decisions to cancel by the Big Ten and the Pac 12 were wrong on almost every scale.
Friday night, while Red Bank was getting a halftime speech from coach Chris Brown that motivated them to pull away - the gist of his message was to make sure his team was enjoying playing the game they worked so hard at - Signal was recognizing its senior band members.
Yes, it was curious - having a senior event on the first Friday of September - at first. Then the realization hit me that, "Absolutely, have all the events as soon as possible, because we are not guaranteed another Friday whatsoever."
The smiles and applause were magical, for parents and band members.
We forget that these events shape so many in the community beyond those who block and tackle and catch and coach.
And to tie it into the clip of Kirk Herbstreit getting emotional over the weekend that swept the interwebs, the connection between all of us - regardless of color or politics or any of the divides - through sports is where we need to be and who we should strive to be.
Cosmically, we can strive to be the us that we envision from church pews on Sundays. Practically, we are the community we see from bleachers on Friday nights.
And we all need that. More today than ever.
This and that
- Here's Rory McIlroy reminding all of us how devilish golf can be.
- Did you see Dr. Dre's wife's alimony requests? Wow.
- Here's more on Herbstreit emotional plea for racial harmony on Gameday.
- Wow, David Paschall had a full weekend. Here's a story on former McCallie star Jay Hardy making strides at Auburn. Here's a look at UT's scratched scrimmage because of Corona. Here's UGA having a scrimmage without Jamie Newman.
Today's question
Weekend winners and losers ... Go.
As for today, let's review.
As well as the young 5-at-10, Easy E and Shannon Elizabeth have birthdays today.
Tupac was shot in Vegas on this day in 1996.
But this is Lee Greeson's day.
Rushmore of 'Lee' and be creative.