Your “Well, Look Who It Is” Thursday Evening Open Thread

NFL Nuggets:

• It’s a quiet day inside the NFL bubble.
  • Today was the deadline for players to voluntarily opt out of the 2020 season & have their contracts roll over to 2021.
    • A total of 66 players officially took the offer prior to the 4:00PM ET deadline.
    • Under the arrangement worked out between the NFL and the NFLPA, a player can still opt out later if one of the following applies:
      • if that player gets a new diagnosis that he has a high-risk condition; or
      • if a player’s family member dies, is hospitalized or otherwise moves to a medical facility because of COVID-19 or related condition.
  • PFT notes that there are economic incentives for some to opt out.
    • For example, if a player has a $10 million fully-guaranteed salary in 2020, a $10 million non-guaranteed salary in 2021, and half of the 2020 season is lost, the player would receive $5 million in 2020, and $5 million of his $10 million base salary in 2021 would become fully guaranteed.
      • He will actually make more guaranteed money in a year that would have been otherwise non-guaranteed.

• Someone has finally worked out an approximation of how much money the NFL stands to lose from lost ticket sales.
  • The total amount is estimated to be $7.0 billion.
    • The sum comes from an estimation of the four hottest ticket markets, with an extrapolation for the other 28 teams.
      • In 2020, the hottest tickets were expected to be the Giants & Jets, the Eagles, and the Raiders.
        • These four teams were expected to reap $1.3 billion in initial sales & percentages off of resales.
    • TicketiQ then used each team’s resale markups from 2019 to extrapolate where those prices would have gone in 2020.
      • The loss is estimated at $218 million per team.

Hey look – it’s Beerguyrob, fresh back from a week of… a week. Here’s the Coles’ notes:

• Riga had to have the dog ACL surgery. 
  • She’s on the shelf until November, at which point both she & Antonio Brown will be eligible to play.
  • Called a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy, or TPLO, they remove the remnants of the torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament & realign the tibia using a steel plate.
    • In two weeks she can have her cone removed.
    • In four weeks she can go for walks outside the yard for 15-minute walks.
    • In six weeks I return to school, so my summer is now resigned to monitoring her recovery.
• I suffered a partially dislocated shoulder, which is actually worse than a full dislocation.
  • I was riding my bike, when a jaywalker on her phone walked into the lane in front of me. I hit a wall with my shoulder & heard three distinct pops.
    • Went to a clinic instead of the hospital, because of the COVID. If I still have restricted motion after this week, I have to go in & get a CT Scan.
• Chores!
  • Instead of just drinking, I got two days of drinking & three days of scraping & removing loose paint from the garage before repainting.

Best laid plans…

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Vegas vs. St. Louis – 6:30PM | NBCSN / Sportsnet360
  • Toronto vs. Columbus – 8:00PM | NBCSN / Sportsnet
  • Calgary vs. Winnipeg – 10:30PM | CNBC / Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Los Angeles Clippers vs. Dallas Mavericks – 6:30PM | TNT / TSN2
  • Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets – 9:00PM | TNT / TSN2
• MLS is Back Tournament:
  • Orlando City SC vs. Minnesota United – 8:00PM | ESPN2 / TSN
• MLB:
  • Toronto at Atlanta – 7:00PM | Sportsnet1
  • Cheatstros at Arizona or Cubs at Royals – 7:00PM | FOX
• Southern Hemisphere tackle sports:
  • Super Rugby Australia:
    • Rebels vs. Brumbies – 5:00AM | TSN
  • Australian Rules Football:
    • Essendon vs. GWS – 5:30AM | TSN5 / ESPN+

And just like that, I’m done for the week. Balls has something special for you tomorrow, and I’ll be back on the weekend with my usual pre-taped goodness.