Your “Oh God – Not Even Baseball!” Wednesday Evening Open Thread

NFL News:

• Some mentally ill member of the Honey Badger’s family tried to extort between $1.5 – $5.0 million from him.
  • A cousin in Louisiana was apparently going to tell the media that Tyrann Mathieu “did something” unless he got paid.
    • When Mathieu blocked him on all media, the cousin then started texting Mathieu’s agent and friends about the threat.
  • Honey Badger DID care, and he went to the cops, who brought in the FBI.

• Jon Gruden’s going to be pissed – the NFL has banned certain high-contact drills, in the interest of player safety.
  • Including the star of the field, the Oklahoma drill.
  • This follows up on a League and NFL Players Association program to produce a three-part concussion-reduction strategy:
    • prohibiting underperforming helmet models,
    • instituting a series of rule changes rooted in biomechanical research, and
    • intervening in early training camp practices.
      • Banning unnecessary contact drills is part of this strategy.
  • To quote Florio, “The move is the next step in the evolution of the game, as the league hopes to identify and to remove any and all situations that entail unnecessary helmet contact.”

• The NFL Draft has been awarded to Cleveland for 2021 and Kansas City for 2023.
  • 2021 will be Cleveland’s 75th anniversary in the league.
  • Kansas City didn’t provide a compelling reason, aside from a historic venue (Union Station) where they will hold it.
  • 2022 wasn’t awarded because there are multiple bids that the league wants to look through before deciding.

• Of all the new plays open for PI review, the one that may be exempted is the Hail Mary.
  • They would be excluded from both instant replay and coach’s challenge.
  • Downside: a “Hail Mary” formation would have to be defined in the rule.
    • Which PFT rightly points out gives rulebook demons like Bill Belichick a way to still fuck with things.

• On the media front, the league made a number of announcements as it relates to broadcast start & run times.
  • Sunday Divisional Round start times will now be 3:00PM & 6:30PM ET.
  • The Super Bowl previously featured five commercial breaks per quarter, but will now have four.
  • The “single-header” rule has been eliminated as a one-year test.
    • So every market will get three games during Sundays in the regular season.
      • There will still be “blackouts due to regional broadcast”, but instead of only getting one day game, each market will get its scheduled game, a regional game outside that scheduled game in the other game block, and the night game.

• The Vikings are attempting to keep Kyle Rudolph.
  • Their current proposal is a five-year extension, but with team-friendly numbers because the Vikings, at present, only have about $500,000 in cap space & Rudolph wants approximately $7.5 million.
    • Fortunately, the Vikings negotiator believes he can make Mr. Rudolph see through his intransigence.

Tonight’s sport:

• NHL: no games until Monday, but at least concluded TV shows are weighing in.

https://twitter.com/VeIeno/status/1131025221086076928

• CHL:
  • Memorial Cup : Halifax vs. Rouyn-Noranda – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
• NBA: no game until Thursday
• MLB: only MLBN in the USA
  • Red Sox at Blue Jays – 7:00PM | Sportsnet1
• MLS:
  • NY Red Bulls vs. Whitecaps FC – 8:00PM | TSN

Look, I like baseball – it’s why I’m the Beerguy – but even I have to admit that just that on TV makes the space between more meaningful games in other sports look that much bleaker.The NHL has decided to start the Finals on Monday, and the Warriors wrapped up earlier than expected. We get at least one Raptors-Bucks game before the weekend, and once we’re there the boredom won’t matter as much.