Your “At Least The Clown Shows No Longer Involve This Clown” Monday Evening Open Thread

NFL Nuggets:

• Antonio Brown has now decided to stop taking runs at BIG BEN and instead is now bravely aiming his Twitter cannon at Juju Smith-Schuster.
  • Going so far as to blame Juju for the reason the Steelers “fumbled away” their chance at the playoffs in Week 16 against the Saints.
  • Which has led to a back & forth that demeans them all.

Crazy how big that ego got to be to take shots at people who show you love! Smh

— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) April 7, 2019

• Better Steelers news: Ryan Shazier is able to do three-foot box jumps.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv93QvvgL-1/?utm_source=ig_embed

• Betterer news is that more former AAF players have been signed to NFL contracts:
  • The Steelers signed three players.
  • The Cardinals signed two players.

Tonight’s sport:

• NCAA:
  • National Championship Game: Virginia vs. Texas Tech – 9:00PM | CBS / TSN
    • Ralph Sampson in the house!

Although it’s not as cool a story as my brother’s friend who ran a $500 Eagles bet in Week 15 then double-or-nothing all the way to a potential $400,000 payout if they’d beaten the Saints, the largest payout on Texas Tech tonight is a $1500 futures bet from back in November that will pay out $300,000 if they can beat Virginia. (He apparently wanted to bet more than $1500, but the Sportsbook stopped him.)

I can’t say I have any real animus towards either school. I remember Ralph Sampson because any guy my age from the 80s couldn’t forget how tall he was versus the rest of the team, and how Jim Valvano completely owned him in both the 1983 ACC Tournament finals and the Elite Eight. And I’ve been to Lubbock.

The current spread on the game is Virginia by 1.5, with an over/under of 118.5. I’m not Hippo, nor an especially devout worshipee of GAMBLOR, but I’m going to pick Virginia by six & advocate for the under – I just see these two teams taking too much first-half time trying to feel each other out, and that will leave the scoring kinda flat. It won’t be as flat as the Super Bowl or your first girlfriend, but it’ll be close enough to give you flashbacks.

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Tonight’s other sports:

• NHL playoffs start Wednesday, and the NBA took tonight off to watch the game.
• MLB:
  • Yankees at Astros – 7:00PM | ESPN / TSN2
  • Nationals at Phillies – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
• WWE:
  • Monday Night RAW – 8:00PM | USA / Sportsnet360
    • after yesterday’s 13.5 hour Wrestlemania, tonight is the annual “brand reset” where new feuds & new wrestlers appear

As stated, NHL playoffs start on Wednesday. I’ll have series breakdowns by conference over the next couple of days. APRIL IS THE START OF TROPHY SEASON!