NFL News:

• Free agency updates:
  • late-Monday:  
    • Tyrann Mathieu to the Chiefs – 3 years/$42 million.
    • Terrell Suggs to the Cardinals – one year/$7 million
  • Tuesday: (up to 6:00PM ET)
    • CJ Mosley to the Jets for $85 million ($51 million guaranteed) over 5 years.
    • Sheldon Richardson to the Browns for three years & $36 million.
    • Three players to the Packers:
      • Za’Darius Smith – 4 years/$66 million
      • Adrian Amos – 4 years/$37 million
      • Preston Smith – 4 years/$52 million
    • Latavius Murray to the Saints – 4 years/$14.5 million  
    • John Brown and Cole Beasley to the Bills.
      • Brown – 3 years/$27 million
      • Beasley – four years/$29 million
    • James Carpenter & Jamon Brown to the Falcons.
      • Carpenter – 4 years/$$$ undisclosed before I posted
      • Brown – 3 years/$$$ undisclosed before I posted

• Non-free agency news:
  • The Patriots placed a $2 million tender on Josh Gordon.
  • Teddy Bridgewater is staying with the Saints.
  • Ryan Shazier will remain on the Steelers payroll, with his contract “tolled” so he can go on the PUP list & gain a pension year & keep his team medical benefits.

**Ahem**

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the college cheating scandal announced today – “Operation Varsity Blues” –

with the highlight being that Aunt Becky rigged entrance exams so she could get her kid into USC.

Deadspin has all of the gory details, because – Deadspin.

As an educator, the part of this scandal that really gets me going is how the parents got their kids special-needs designation so they could get extra time on the tests.

A large part of what I have to deal with on a daily basis are kids whose parents have gotten them designations because the kids aren’t performing the way the parents expected them to. Maybe it has to do with “kids these days”, parents not actually being parents but more a “best friend”, or rises in autism designations as we learn more about the condition, but only one of those three is legitimate versus the other two. But when parents go get their kid labeled so they can get extra services (test time; special aides; exemptions) simply to get their kid an advantage, they weaken the construct of a system designed to help the legitimately needy within public education.

Most of the kids I get have been designated at one point, and experience has shown me that about half of those are utter bullshit, because the kid was more difficult than the parents could handle (because teenagers are the worst). So the parents paid a diagnostic clinic to assess their child, and LO & BEHOLD what was a simple pain-in-the-ass is now “learning disabled”.

By the time they get to me, they’ve been so coddled that they actually are learning-impaired, because no one has shown them how to do work & instead done the work for them. One of my students is almost 19, and I don’t think he knows how to read – yet he’s just four courses short of graduating. And I get to be the asshole that keeps him from doing so, because I refuse to shove the kid out the door. Plus, helping a kid who’s clearly more interested in doing social media while here like that takes away from my ability to help students who have actual learning disabilities, because the 30 minutes I’d like to spend with that kid has to be split 15/15 with the other one.

I’ve got all the time in the world for the kids who need my help. It’s a shame I have to waste some of that time on kids whose parents need a good punch in the mouth.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Capitals at Penguins – 7:00PM | NBCSN / Sportsnet
  • Predators at Ducks – 10:00PM | Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Spurs at Mavericks – 8:00PM | TNT
  • Lakers at Bulls – 8:00PM | Sportsnet1
  • Timberwolves at Nuggets – 10:30PM | TNT / Sportsnet1
• NCAA:
  • Horizon League Basketball Tournament:
    • The championship – 7:00PM | ESPN
  • ACC Basketball Tournament:
    • Boston College vs. Pittsburgh – 7:00PM | ESPNU
  • Northeast Basketball Tournament:
    • Fairleigh Dickinson at St. Francis (Pa.) – 7:00PM | ESPN2
  • Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament:
    • The championship – 8:00PM | FS1
  • Summit League Basketball Tournament:
    • The championship – 9:00PM | ESPN2
  • West Coast Basketball Tournament:
    • The championship – 9:00PM | ESPN
• WWE:
  • Smackdown Live! – 8:00PM | USA / Sportsnet360
    • Will we learn why Shane McMahon turned on the Miz?! Shirley?