NFL News: 

• Chuck Knox died on Sunday, aged 86. In his time, he coached the Bills, Seahawks, and Rams (twice).
  • This one matters to me, because he was the first Seahawks coach I remember.
    • “Ground Chuck” was a great nickname, from an era of many.
  • According to Peter King, Knox coached 22 NFL seasons, and his 186 regular-season wins are 10th all-time in the 98-season history of the NFL.
    • His career record was 186-147.

• DeAngelo Hall retired today after 14 seasons.
  • He had a pretty honest accounting of his career:

“Average,” Hall said of his career. “Not great; on pace to be really good until four years ago. I had a vision of a gold jacket. The injuries the last couple years have been very hard on me, so that’s out of the question. Who’s to say I can’t get in there another way. That’s my focus. I still want a gold jacket, whether I get one as an exec, a coach. I’m going to get me a damn gold jacket. Believe that.”

• Ooh – circle your calendars:
  • Greg Hardy’s professional MMA debut will come against another former NFL player. Hardy will face former defensive end Austen Lane on June 12 in a heavyweight bout on the Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series, it was announced during the UFC 224 broadcast.
  • Lane has been out of football since 2014, Hardy since 2015.

• Matt Millen, who played with – as Peter King called it – “intelligent abandon” for the Raiders, and whom intelligence abandoned when he was Lions GM (© Beerguyrob), is battling amyloidosis and may need a heart transplant.
  • In the article, PK gets very nuggety: “How football history could have changed if you picked DeMarcus Ware instead of Mike Williams,” I said.
    • “How ’bout that?” Millen said. “Maybe we would have ruined him too.”
  • Amyloidosis is a rare disease that attacks the bodies organs and often evades diagnosis because it mimics other diseases.
    • It requires chemotherapy to manage the symptoms, but is not a cure.
      • So, it’s the lupus of rare diseases?

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Finally, a malevolent deity,

must be dancing quite hard today, as the US Supreme Court took time out from ignoring gun laws to overturn a George HW Bush era online gaming law regarding sports betting. The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act essentially mandated Nevada as the only jurisdiction that could allow single-event gambling.

• In a 6-3 vote, the court, through Justice Alito’s response, ruled that “(t)he legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not.”
• The court’s decision came in a case from New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks in the state.

Florio guesstimates that 6-10 states could have legal betting set up by the time the NFL kicks off Week 1, while also noting that the NFL & the other three major sports leagues will begin lobbying Congress to enact national legislation.

New Jersey plans to be first. Delaware, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are among the states expected to quickly get into the legal bookmaking game, and 32 states are expected to have some form up & running within 5 years. A record $4.8 billion was wagered at Nevada sportsbooks in 2017, and the American Gaming Association estimates that Americans illegally wager about $150 billion on sports each year. No word on Hippo’s contributions to that tally.

Tonight’s sports: 

• NHL:
  • Vegas at Winnipeg – 8:00PM | NBCSN / CBC
• NBA:
  • Warriors at Rockets – 9:00PM | TNT / Sportsnet1
• MLB:
  • Rays at Royals – 7:00PM | ESPN / TSN
• WWE:
  • Monday Night Raw – 8:00PM | USA / Sportsnet360
    • from London, so tape-delayed from earlier today.

Inanimate Carbon Rod Marinelli had the hockey comment of the weekend:

Man, with the Capitals playing this way this year might be truly special: the year the Caps eat shit to an expansion team.

With great respect, I’d like to lobby for the Jets to win over the Caps. It’d be Gary Bettman’s greatest failure triumphing over John Ziegler’s. A CROMULENT STORM!