A brief soliloquy:

All my aunts on my father’s side married US soldiers. There was a NORAD base outside Kirkland Lake, Ontario back in the 1960s. I once asked my aunt why she married an American, and she said, “Robert, I looked at your uncle, and then I looked at my choices in Kirkland Lake. I wanted to see the world, and he was a handsome man.” ‘Nuff said.

All of those uncles served in Vietnam, and one served in proximity to Captain America, so that made him a Cowboys fan for life. I gotta respect that, like I respect anyone who’s put on their country’s uniform. I hope all the US DFOers are having a good holiday Monday.

Here’s a couple of good links to history pages about war vets who played in the NFL. Rocky Bleier will never not be impressive.

Continuing the military theme, Keenan Reynolds – Ravens 6th-round pick in 2016 – and Chargers undrafted signee Chris Swain were given permission to defer their service requirements until after the end of their playing days. Cue the old guys complaining kids today have it soft.

NFL News:

• Well well well – a former Inglewood city employee is claiming the mayor & pro-football council members cooked the books to make Inglewood look financially stable in advance of the NFL decision on relocation.
  • Because the source for the story is Florio’s lunatic lounge, you can imagine the quality of comments.
• Also at PFT, they have a breakdown on why certain owners prefer or oppose Vegas for the Raiders.
• Ryan Fitzpatrick has issue with being paid $12 million to be considered better than Geno Smith.

In this week’s Acela Excreta:

• Petey decided to let Jenny Vrentas write this week’s episode, while separately penning a letter bravely maintaining his stance of not using “[*Redacted] s”, despite polls numbers showing ambivalence. “THIS IS MY SOAPBOX!” he declared, while not calling it a soapbox. Among her highlights:
  • “No Super Bowl loser has been back to the big game the next season in 23 years. But don’t bet against Riverboat Ron Rivera and the Panthers.” HOT TAEK!!!
  • She also reviews the Raiders-to-Vegas rumours, and covers the dollars and cents which is driving people like Bob McNair to begrudgingly support such an idea
  • A nice segue on all the Jags injuries into a major story about Paul Posluszny and the nine years he has spent in Jaxson De Ville’s shadow hoping for a winning season.
  • Finally, the main portion of the article concludes with a recap of an interview with the Ryan brothers, and what they hope to bring to western NY this Fall.
• I didn’t care about the rest of the article past there, so I stopped.

I bet he felt pretty smug when they announced the dates for the Cup Finals. Monday, May 30th looked perfect for Gary Bettman – the start of a new week; other sports usually run lighter schedules; major networks have ended their seasons, so there’d be no broadcast competition; and Monday Night RAW ratings suck. After a difficult year, and a playoff season that saw no Canadian teams at all & all the major-US market teams go out early, the best case scenario was what he was delivered.

And then Klay Thompson happened.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Now all anyone can talk about is the NBA and Game 7, and I couldn’t be happier. Released ratings info from last week show the NHL playoffs not only getting trounced by the NBA (0.6 versus 3.0) but also by the NBA pregame show (0.6 vs 0.7), and Eastern Conference Game 7 viewers were down 23% from last year.

It really doesn’t help San Jose to be opening their otherwise-notable first-ever Cup Final in the shadow of their Bay-area sports brethren. If the Warriors win, and the Sharks get walloped, it’s pretty much lights-out for coverage from today forward.

Tonight’s “Kill or be killed” playoff action:

NBA: Game 7 – OKC @ Golden State – 9:00

NHL: Game 1 – Finals – San Jose @ Pittsburgh – 8:00

• Prediction: Penguins in 6.

Other stuff, because you are done with sports?

• DISXD: BattleBots – 7:30. You’re learning what the fuss is about. Watch some in prep for the June 23 premiere.
• History: Roots – 9:00. We don’t get the new series in Canada, but I hear this remake’s not bad.
  • I remember watching the original. I don’t think the new one will have the same “shock value”, but hopefully has accurate history.
• TCM:
  • Where Eagles Dare – 8:00
  • Kelly’s Heroes – 10:45

The kid in me who grew up watching Jack Sikma is rooting for the Warriors. WHO YA GOT?!