Your “Thus Begins Another Shift in the Factory Of Sadness” Thursday Open Thread

Not much on the NFL front today, as emphasized by:

• “Aaron Rodgers: Tom Brady inspiring my eating habits”
  • I’m sure Olivia Munn thanks him too
• Mike Florio taking professional shots at Stephen A. Smith
  • If only they could be locked in a windowless room.
• Brock Osweiler is skipping the Bronco’s Monday visit to the White House. If JJ Watt can never go, then why should anyone else? I’m surprised he didn’t force the kid to return the ring and win one “the right way”. From robot to MODOK; Brock’s got no chance.
• Akiem Nicks – last of the Saints; now of the Bears – backs the Wolfman’s claims he’d been kneecapped by Sean Payton the last two years.
  • too bad they don’t play this year
    • BTW, looking at the Bills schedule, there’s a real chance they go 2-14 this year; their non-division opponents are the NFC West & AFC North, plus Jax & the Raiders. MAYBE they beat the Browns & Jags, but I don’t see much else here.

The big football story of the day is Baylor bleeding recruits in the wake of Art Briles being let go. Seven recruits have asked to be released from their Letters of Intent since last Thursday.

• If they withdrew before the May 31 start of classes, they would be able to go to another school immediately; after that date, Baylor has 30 days to either hold or release them from that commitment.
  • one of those 7 – Devin Duvernay – may be eligible immediately, because Baylor never got around to filing his Letter of Intent with the national database. According to reports, Baylor forgot to submit his letter, but did submit his twin brother Donovan’s, meaning that Devin can go anywhere, but Donovan has to wait 14 days before he can be approached. They seem to be a package deal, so possible schools will require two available scholarships.
  • If Baylor jerks them, they lose a year of eligibility when they transfer. No word on whether any active roster students have requested transfers yet, but that has to be coming, especially among the sophomores.
• Rumours are already about that Texas is swirling the lagoon looking to pick off what it can. Locals are fearing a return to Baylor being a traditional weak sister in its conference.

Random news & notes:

• So, they’ve officially declared Prince’s death an “opioid overdose”, specifically fentanyl. Goddammit.
• The murder-suicide at UCLA only came about after the gunman killed a woman in Minnesota and then drove to LA, looking to kill the profs who “stole” his intellectual property. I wonder if he wore astronaut diapers?
• Germany declared the 1915 Armenian massacre a “genocide”, to the anger of Turkey. Well, if anyone ‘s an expert on genocide…
• The PGA has moved the 2017 World Golf Championships from Trump’s Doral course in Florida to a course outside Mexico City, citing a lack of willing US sponsors. Trump’s reaction was expected: “I hope they have kidnapping insurance”.

Tonight’s Game 1 Playoff Action: Cleveland @ Golden State – 9:00 (ABC)

Well, the juggernaut has landed in Oakland. I read a lot of basketball sites today, so I feel fairly confident in this statement, which will be presented by Jay Cutler:

About 75% of the “experts” have picked Golden State to win, and the average number of games it’ll take is 6. The only site I’ll believe – Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com – gives the Warriors a 69% (hee hee) chance to repeat. What most likely matters to followers of a football site is, “How will this affect the Browns?” Because, if the Cavs fail, and the Indians Indian, then the prospects for people dumping more false belief onto the Browns becomes a real & apparent fact.

Looking at their schedule, I’m going to say the best-case Browns scenario is 6-10, which means – if he stays with the Cavs next year – even more pressure falls on LeBron to win it all next year. (That – “Next Year” – should really be on the Cleveland city flag, because “Progress & Prosperity” seems like a goddamned lie at this point.) That might just break him.

LIFE GOES ON!