NFL News:

• As expected, Aaron Hernandez’s murder conviction was vacated today, as a result of his suicide prior to the conclusion of his appeal.
  • This means his widow will be able to go after the Patriots for the remainder of his 2012 signing bonus.
    • but Odin Lloyd’s heirs cannot, because the law now says Aaron Hernandez didn’t kill Odin Lloyd.
      • unless they attempt to seek a trial in absentia & prove Hernandez killed Lloyd, and then use that verdict to sue for a percentage of the signing bonus the widow is going for. So, no.
  • Question: Would it be a Patriots move to take this all the way to SCOTUS to avoid paying?
• As expected, they will pair Jay Cutler with Kevin Burkhardt on Fox’s “C” team, replacing John Lynch, who went to Santa Clara to beat Jed York into a man.
• A three-over 75 put Tony Romo in 40th place, and out of contention for the US Open.
  • the highlight of his round was the 14th hole, where he reached the 600-yard par 5 with a 370-yard drive and a 225-yard 6-iron to within 3 feet; he tapped in the eagle.
  • the lowlight was fumbling the snap on the convert immediately putting his next drive in the water & triple-bogeying the 15th.
• A construction timeline filed with the city has the Raiders’ Las Vegas stadium completed in June 2020.
  • According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a 30-month construction time frame is ambitious compared with that of other recent stadium projects. Of the last four domed NFL stadiums built, none have been completed within 30 months.
    • By December 2017, they are hoping stadium site work begins, and that by January 2018 the stadium construction begins.

Finally, in Patriots-hate news:

• Vegas not only lists the Pats as 3/1 favourites to repeat as champs (they were 7/2 last week), they are now favoured to go undefeated as well. They are favoured by an average of 6.5 points in each game next season.
  • their best odds of defeat are road games in Week 11 (Raiders, in Mexico City) and Week 15 (Steelers), where they are only favoured by 1.5 points.
• the nfl.com “Power Rankings” are out. Their top-5 are:
  1. Patriots
  2. Falcons
  3. Raiders
  4. Steelers
  5. Packers

It’s voting day in BC today. As in the rest of Canada, we run on a “first-past-the-post” party system, so the leader of the party that wins the most electoral ridings (out of 85) becomes the first minister of the province, or “Premier”.

We have three main political parties:

1. BC Liberal: centre-right to right-wing (foreign equivalent = Democrat)
2. BC NDP: centre-left to left-wing (foreign equivalent = UK Labour)
3. BC Green: they say centre; policies are left-wing (foreign equivalent = German Green)

There is no equivalent for the Republican Party in Canada. The closest might have been the Wildrose Party in Alberta, and they are in the process of dying due to internecine battles & borderline racial separatism. Federal Canadian Conservatives lack the social conservatism that is a hallmark of American right-wing politics.

Our choices for Premier are

• An entitled, smug lady,

• A barely-controlled rage monster,

• and an affable climatologist whose vote-splitting will hand power to one of the other two.

Polls predict a narrow BC Liberal victory, maybe winning 50 seats. It all depends on how deep the Green-NDP split goes.

I will probably head down to my local MLA’s campaign party for some free cocktails once the polls close at 8:00. I figure she owes me, due to the upcoming summer overpass construction.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Senators at Rangers – 7:30PM | NBCSN / CBC
    • Game 6; Ottawa leads 3-2
• NBA:
  • Rockets at Spurs – 8:00PM | TNT / TSN
    • Game 5; series tied 2-2
• MLB:
  • Yankees at Reds – 7:00PM | FS1
  • Cleveland at Blue Jays – 7:00 PM | Sportsnet1

C’mon Sens – DO IT FOR MAESTRO!