It’s been another interesting week in sports. Here are 5 reactions to all the happenings of the week.
Win with Quin!
You remember when Quin Snyder was the coach of the Mizzou basketball team? He was actually pretty good before the recruiting allegations, drugs and rumored relationships with female students. Sure we interviewed Bill Self and John Calipari and chose Snyder over them. But hey, he gave us 4 pretty good years plus another 2 and half bad years. After that he bounced around in the NBA minor leagues before getting a job with the Jazz. He left last year after issues with the ownership, etc. But to everyone’s delight…he is back in the league. For whatever reason, I have always rooted for Quin. He is sort of like the kid in high school who made a bunch of dumb mistakes and has crazy hair but you know deep down he is pretty talented and likable so you are cheering for him. To make it even better he is coaching the Hawks. Growing up in KC where the Kings left when I was 6 years old, I never really had an NBA team. I wouldn’t say I was a bandwagon fan although I certainly cheered for the Pistons and Bulls during their runs especially in the NBA finals. But my two favorite teams were probably the Warriors because Chris Mullen was left handed like me and the Hawks because I liked Dominique Wilkins. So this is a great fit for me. Go Hawks! I will now be cheering for 3 NBA teams. The Nuggets because I live here in Denver, I guess. The Warriors because I like to cheer for the team everyone else hates. And now the Hawks. I still won’t watch any of these teams play until the playoffs but now that will be more fun because I have a team in the East. Now to just figure out who is actually playing for the Hawks these days.
AJ vs JuJu:
JuJu is an interesting character. I don’t know if he will be back with the Chiefs next year. But I do know he knows how to get under AJ Brown’s skin. It all started on Valentine’s day when everyone was creating the little valentine’s cards with football player’s faces on them with funny comments. JuJu tweeted one with Bradberry’s face that said “I’ ‘ll hold you when it matters most.” I am not saying this is something I would do. But I must admit that this was hilarious. AJ Brown took offense and stood up for his teammate. He ripped JuJu for not being a good receiver, being on tik tok too much and a few other things. JuJu again responded by brilliantly just stating that he was happy AJ could finally get things off his chest. I thought this would be the end of it but then JuJu made some tik tok video that honestly doesn’t make any sense to me. But it got AJ upset and he again tweeted and sent JuJu a private message that AJ took a pic of and also tweeted. AJ basically said stop putting me in your tik toks or whatever or you are going to get beat up. AJ later deleted the tweets. Wide Receiver beef is the best sort of beef. JuJu is literally just poking at him for fun now. And AJ is very upset about it. It will be interesting to see where this goes next.
The NFL Combine:
The NFL combine is this week. It is the NFL version of a dating app. The players run as fast as they can, jump as high as they can, and see how many times they can bench press 225. Spoiler alert, I can bench press 225 zero times. 20 years ago when I was these guys age, I could throw that up 10 times though, so take that. Anyway, while the guys do all the jumping and the ever important life skill of the shuttle run, the NFL scouts, coaches and gm’s look on to decide if they want to pick them or not. I hear dating apps are similar these days as you can just swipe and swipe until you find someone you like. Now not everyone participates. The last couple of years the Rams have not gone and the media makes a big deal about it. But guess what and I know this is going to shock you…the Rams never have any draft picks so there is no reason for them to go anyway. This is also why they don’t have depth and if they have any injuries they are terrible. But hey, Matt Stafford told his wife that they were going to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl next year at Sean McVay’s super bowl party. So look out world. Anyway, the combine is sort of fun and gives us a little NFL fix in the offseason so that is nice. So feel free to tune in today, tomorrow and Sunday to watch a bunch of guys who are way more athletic than me have their own little field day minus the ribbons, sack lunches and the embarrassment of not being able to climb the rope in the gym. (Did that happen to you? Or was that just me?)
2 Strikes and 8 seconds and you are out!
There are several new rules within the MLB that you may not be aware of because a lot of us don’t pay that much attention to baseball. Among them are rules taking away the shift, bigger bases and a timer when batters are at the plate. You can read the entire new rules here:
All these rules are designed to make the game go faster and be more entertaining. Here is the problem. All sports are taking longer but the other sports aren’t losing popularity. But Baseball has been losing fans for decades. And so people have to answer why they are not a fan. But I think we are over complicating things. I have some friends and family members who have communicated that they think the NFL games are too long and the officiating is so bad that it is ruining the game and making it unwatchable. All these people have one thing in common. Their team sucks. But every year they come back at the beginning of the season and seem excited. It is only at the middle to end of the season that they start to complain about these things. You know who isn’t complaining? Chiefs fans. Sure there is the occasional complaint about the officiating from winning teams fans. But no one states that they aren’t going to watch anymore. Look I get it. As adults we only have so many hours in the day. We don’t want to waste it watching our favorite team getting their butt kicked week in and week out. But if our team is winning we will suffer through just about anything. I would argue that there is no officiating in the world worse than college basketball. But guess what, now that Mizzou is decent, I tune in as much as I can to their games. The Royals have been pretty awful for years now. Do I check the box score every day, sure. Am I looking for a local bar in Colorado where the Royals game is showing or figuring out how to stream it on my computer? Nope. But from 2013 to around 2017 or 2018 I tuned in regularly. Why? Because my team didn’t completely suck. The problem with baseball is that more teams suck than don’t suck and because there is no salary cap you have no hope most years. Sure a smaller market might build up their minor league system and make a run for 3-5 years. But mostly we all know it is going to be the national league teams in California versus Boston, NY or Houston. The other problem is baseball just isn’t as fun to watch on TV. I have always enjoyed going to the ball park and having a below average hot dog and an overpriced beer. Whenever I am at the game, I never think this is taking too long or I wish the bases were bigger. But on tv it just doesn’t play as well. Hockey is a better experience in person too and is another sport I seldom watch on tv. It’s just how it is. There is only one thing that will make me watch more baseball. The Royals not sucking. Besides, I can already watch baseball with more offense before the rule change because I live in Colorado. Whoever the road team is always comes to town and scores lots of runs. But these new rules are great for making the baseball purists and traditionalists throw fits and that is for sure the most entertaining part.
NFLPA Survey and Rankings
For the first time ever they NFL Players Union did a survey of players where they could unanimously give a grade to their team in the following categories: treatment of families, nutrition, weight room, strength staff, training room, training staff, locker room and travel. The top 3 teams were the Vikings, Dolphins and Raiders. The bottom 3 were the Chargers, Cardinals and to no one’s surprise based upon ownership, the Commanders. Interestingly enough, the Chiefs finished just above the bottom 3 at 29. Of course they didn’t ask questions about treatment by coaches, relationships with teammates or my favorite category that makes players happy…winning. There were some funny issues though that came up.
The Jaguars had the best complaint, rats. Apparently they had a rat infestation in the laundry room and locker room. This is valid. If I came to work and there were rats, I’d complain too. The Bengals who also were down low like the Chiefs have plumbing and electrical issues as their showers and toilets often don’t work and they don’t have plug ins to charge their phones. This is basic stuff here. The bathrooms on our floor at work didn’t work for a few days and it was super annoying. For the first time in the last few years, I sympathize with the Bengals. Maybe we aren’t too different after all. Nah, I still hate you.
The Ravens are down on their strength coaches, which isn’t surprising. They are like the 49ers of the AFC and always have a ton of injuries. Most happen in the preseason or first 4-6 weeks but many are season ending. This is why the Ravens always start out hot and fade away quickly.
To no one’s surprise the Cardinals are cheap. They charge their players for their food if they take it home or get food during off season work outs. And of course the Commanders players pretty much hate absolutely everything about being a Commander player.
The Chiefs players complaints were a lot about the practice facilities and the trainers. They would like chairs instead of stools by their lockers so they can lean back. That in theory should be a pretty easy to fix. They also do not like the main trainer Rick Burkholder. They like his staff but not him. Apparently they felt like they couldn’t come to him with injuries and couldn’t speak up about getting better care. Well guess what the Chiefs were one of the healthiest teams all year and just won a Super Bowl. I don’t know what will happen with everything else but I am guessing nothing changes here.
My favorite complaint though was about travel. Apparently the younger players have to room together at hotels on the road trips. This is hilarious and embarrassing. In my mid 20’s to around 30 I worked for financial companies. I had to go to lots of trainings and conferences. Every where I went I got a nice hotel room and everything was paid for. Around 31 I switched gears and started working for a non profit. I was signing up for my first training and one of the questions was “who do you want to be your roommate?” Easy answer…no one. I am a 31 year old man. I don’t want a roommate. Over the 9 years I worked for the organization, I got used to it but never felt great about it. At times I got to room with my brother who also worked for the organization, so that was fun for old times sake. We used to stay in hotel rooms with our parents and sister when were kids. Ruth would get the cot because she was a girl and the boys got to sleep in a bed together. This bothered Justin way more than it did me. I moved around a lot in my sleep as a little kid. Apparently a 12 year old boy didn’t want to cuddle with 5 year old me at 4 AM. Anyway, while I didn’t like the set up, I understood. We were a non-profit after all so the name of the game was save money.
But the Chiefs are not a non profit. They are worth billions of dollars and just won a Super Bowl. The idea of Trent McDuffie having to room with Jaylen Watson is pretty ridiculous. But also pretty funny. I wonder if they had to take turns on who has to give the hotel a card for incidentals. Anyway, this should be an easy fix as well.
However, if I am Clark Hunt I would be like we just won the Super Bowl so if I make these changes we are still going to win stuff…right? While this survey is fine and maybe helpful, you don’t hear a lot of players from winning teams complain about anything. Winning solves everything even having to awkwardly decide who is going to take a shower first at the Best Western.
I have a work trip the end of next week so no 5 for Friday but tune in on Tuesday for the top 10 takeaways from Travis Kelce’s SNL hosting job. This will be the first time I have watched SNL in like at least a half a decade so that should be fun.
Fifth Down 