NFL pre-Week 3 preseason games notes:

• on the heels of his practice fight with the Bears last week comes news the Patriots are cutting Center Brian Stork. [UPDATE: traded to the [*Redacted] s for a 7th Round pick.]
• PFT is alleging that the Browns denied wanting to trade Josh Gordon in order to see if there’s interest from other teams in trading for Josh Gordon. It’s always sad to see a dealer turn on a loyal customer.
• good times at Seahawks practice – Doug Baldwin & Richard Sherman went at it after Baldwin scorched Sherman on a route.
  • sounds like someone needs to take a trip with our Beastmode.
• speaking of trips with Beastmode, the real Beastmode is with Cal in Australia for the start of the Pac-12 season. He even took some practice squad reps, because fuck yeah why not?!

• 

  In the “For Fuck’s Sake!” department, ESPN & PFT are ‘reporting’ that up to “20 teams” will attend Tebow’s tryout day next Tuesday.

  Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who played two seasons of minor league baseball in the Colorado Rockies organization, was recently asked by TheMMQB.com whether he had any advice for Tebow.

  “Hope he can hit a curveball,” Wilson said, adding that “baseball’s pretty hard.”

  • If that limp-armed virgin somehow gets signed, I’m dusting off the blocker and showing up to Canucks camp.

Finally, for a second day in a row, ESPN The Magazine has an excellent long-form article for your reading pleasure. This one is about the rise & fall of daily fantasy sites like FanDuel & Draft Kings. The interesting thing I got from it was that anti-online gambling laws actually facilitated the swift rise. I mean – I’d heard the stories, but the article spells it out nicely for a layman like me.

As you read the article, have a chuckle at recalling how many times JB pimped the site on “FOX NFL Sunday”.

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I got this in my mail today:

The hook? “Don’t miss a minute of the action in Smashville as the Predators seek to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs again in 2017 as part of the NHL’s elite Central Division.” Well, they’ve got me there, because I’m stuck with the Oilers, Flames & Coyotes in the Pacific.

Over-enthusiastic? You bet! Promo Code: ROCKOUT

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In respect of a comment in last night’s Open Thread, time to pour one for a Law & Order classic who aged pretty well.

Steven Hill – this guy

Aged 94. According to IMDb, he was “born in Seattle, Washington, in 1922, as Solomon Krakovsky, to Russian Jewish immigrants.” His first big role was starring alongside Hedy Lamarr in “A Lady Without Passport”.

He was also on the original “Mission: Impossible” TV show, but was fired because he refused to work on the Sabbath; he was replaced by Peter Graves. Pretty good career. I hope he and Jerry Orbach are hunting down perps in the afterlife.

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Tonight’s sports:

• Little League World Series: U.S. winners-bracket game – 7:30PM | ESPN
• 2016 College Football Preview – 8:00 | ESPNU
• MLB Baseball: Giants at Dodgers – 10:00PM | ESPN

Tonight’s paucity of genuine Open Thread quality and sports entertainment is replaced tomorrow by Scotchy & games with actual starters playing about a half. I’LL TAKE IT!