Wednesday?s 6-pack:
This is a little strange; Caesar?s Palace posted odds to win the NIT this March:
5-1? Field
6-1? Saint Mary?s
12-1? Utah State
15-1? Arizona
16-1? San Francisco
20-1? Alabama, ASU, Baylor, Creighton, Oregon St, Wofford
25-1? Clemson, East Tennessee State,
Tweet of the Day
?You?ve got to learn too much. You?ve got to have a great relationship with your offensive line, the receivers, know all the defenses that are going to be thrown at you. It?s just not an NFL season with quarterbacks. They need a lot longer than the season. The offseason is huge for those guys to be successful.?
Former NFL DB, major league OF Brian Jordan
Wednesday?s quiz
Hank Stram was the Chiefs? coach for their only Super Bowl win; what other NFL team did he later coach?
Tuesday?s quiz
NBA?s Thunder were the Seattle SuperSonics before moving to Oklahoma City.
Monday?s quiz
In the movie Bull Durham, when the Bulls cut Crash Davis, he finished the season with the Asheville Tourists.
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Wednesday?s List of 13: Mid-week musings??..
13) Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray declared for the NFL Draft, which is just a procedural thing to keep his options open; the pivotal moment in his career path will be whether or not he goes to the NFL Combine in February, 11 days after the start of spring training.
Four guys on ESPN?s NFL show Monday said they thought Murray would be a first-round draft pick in the NFL; those four guys are rarely unanimous in agreeing on anything. If he gets taken in the first round, Murray would be a damn fool to play baseball- he?ll make a lot more money as a QB than working his way up thru the minor leagues.
12) Murray has a very interesting decision to make. Joe Mauer earned $218M in his baseball career, just in salary; Matt Holliday earned just under $160M in his. Both guys were HS quarterbacks who turned down college scholarships to become baseball players, but there also guys who tried to juggle both sports and never achieved stardom in either.
11) Then there is Chase Daniel, who has earned $28M in his nine NFL seasons, while starting a total of four games. Playing QB in the NFL is really, really lucrative if you?re great at it. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and the Manning brothers have all earned $200M+ in their careers.
Lamar Jackson got a signing bonus of more than $4.9M as the last pick of the first round last year; Murray?s signing bonus with the A?s is $4.66M, most of which he has to return if he signs with an NFL team (he?s already gotten $1.5M of it, would get to keep $200K or so).
10) CBSSports.com posted a mock draft Tuesday, which means bupkis but it is interesting to look at, and they had the Giants taking Murray with the 6th pick.
Oakland A?s Class A farm teams are in Beloit and Stockton; not a tough choice whether to suit up for the New Jersey Giants or the Beloit Snappers.
9) Not sure why the Jets would want to hire a new coach, but not let the guy hire his own assistants? Apparently Baylor?s Matt Rhule and Mike McCarthy both turned the Jets down because they wanted to decide who their assistants would be, rather than be told.
8) Not much better comedy on TV than listening to ESPN?s Jay Bilas whine about Duke?s star Zion Williamson ?being officiated differently?, because he is bigger/stronger than most guys. Nothing like a TV analyst/alum toting the party line for his alma mater.
7) Sad sign of the times: Prison guards in federal prisons are being mocked by prisoners because the guards are working, but not getting paid. Sounds like a fantastic job.
6) Modern football: James White is a running back for the Patriots, but on Sunday against the Chargers he didn?t run the ball once? he did catch 15 passes for 97 yards.
5) Difference between high majors and mid-majors:
Southern Illinois-Illinois State game Tuesday: one soph, 2 juniors, 7 seniors started.
Syracuse-Duke Monday night: 3 freshmen, 2 sophs, 4 juniors, one senior started.
If you play for a top 20 team now and you?re a senior, its almost like you?re a suspect.
4) TCU is 12-3, having a pretty good season, but they?ve had three players transfer out this season, which led them to giving one of their walk-ons a scholarship, and they got creative in how they told the kid.
Players are in a meeting room, and a sheriff walks in, holding a piece of paper and looking stern. He says he is looking for someone: ?Is Owen Ashieris here?? The kid gets up, walks over to the sheriff, and finds out he?s been given a college scholarship. Kind of cool.
3) Indianapolis Colts jumped from 4-12 to 10-6 this year, and much of credit for that went to their offensive line, which protected Andrew Luck very well.
But on Tuesday, the Colts fired OL coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who was the only offensive coach that Josh McDaniel hired during his brief dalliance Indianapolis last winter. Apparently, Reich wants his own guy, so he must have someone in mind, or why not keep DeGuglielmo?
2) Former Notre Dame QB Brandon Wimbush will play his last year of college football at Central Florida; he went 12-3 as a starting QB for the Fighting Irish.
1) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo got off his butt this week, wants 2019 to be the year legalized sports betting comes to New York.
?Let?s authorize sports betting in the upstate casinos. It?s here. It?s a reality, and it will generate activity in those casinos.?
Its about time.
