Your “One Last Day Before The Hype Machines Go Into Overdrive” Thursday Evening Open Thread

NFL News:

• OBJ wants a raise.
  • He’s currently in his fifth-year of his rookie contract.
  • The number being quoted is $20 million/season.
    • Which is pretty funny, since the Giants only have $25 million in cap-space.

• Mike Zimmer says Sam Bradford has a “degenerative knee”, which doesn’t sound at all good.
  • On the topic of Case Keenum – well, here’s a less than ringing endorsement:

Mike Zimmer on Case Keenum: “Is he the guy that played for the Rams or is he the guy that played for us?”

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) March 1, 2018

• Using the logic “it’s better to have nothing than something”, the Colts have decided to not bring back Frank Gore.
  • Gore ranks fifth all-time in NFL history with 14,026 rushing yards — 75 yards behind Curtis Martin and 1,243 yards short of Barry Sanders.

To end on a happy note, Rae Carruth has changed his mind & decided not to pursue custody of is son.

• The Charlotte Observer was told by a family spokesperson: “Rae can see Chancellor is a happy, healthy soul and he doesn’t want to interfere with that. But he will still live up to his financial responsibilities for his son – he definitely wants to do that and he will do that. He wants to help.”

World War One Centenary

March 1, 1918 – Treaty of Peace and Amity signed between the Finnish Social Republic of Workmen and the Russian Federal Soviet Republic.

On its own, it’s a fairly insignificant treaty to the overall concept of World War One. But it had enormous implications on the settlement of the eastern front and the upcoming & ongoing Russian Civil War. Plus, it had implications for World War II as well.

Prior to World War One, Finland had been a part of the Tsarist Russian Empire, known as the Grand Duchy of Finland. The ascension of Nicholas II in 1894 led to a climax in attempts at the Russification of Finland – elimination of the state parliament; Russian as the administrative language; mandatory conscription into the Russian army. After the Governor-general was assassinated in 1904, Russian defeat in the 1905 Russo-Japanese war led Nicholas to impose direct monarchist rule over Finland. The reign of Nicholas II prior to February 1917 is known in Finnish history as “The Second Period of Russification”.

When Nicholas II was removed via the first Russian revolution (Feb/March 1917), the provisional Russian government returned autonomy to Finland. Internal political squabbles led to the dissolution of the nascent Finnish parliament, and the October/November revolution of 1917 led to the rise of competing parliamentary groups:

• a conservative “White” group made up of Finnish monarchists, political conservatives & the Swedish minority;
• a socialist “Red” group made up of socialist paramilitaries, Finnish Bolsheviks & militant Red Guards

The Whites declared independence in early December 1917; the Reds on December 31. Open warfare between the two groups erupted in late-January 1918, inaugurating the Finnish Civil War. To try & get foreign support, the Red Finns signed the Treaty of Peace & Amity with Lenin’s government, because the Reds favoured reintegration with Russia. Lenin encouraged this belief, because he felt that all socialist republics would eventually be united under one (Soviet) leadership.

Two days later, Soviet support was all undone due to the official signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, with Russia surrendering to the Central Powers. Finland was transferred to the German sphere of influence via the Treaty, and the Germans used their influence to stifle support for the Reds in the Finnish conflict, so as to minimize their troop commitments in the East so they could redirect their forces to the Western front. The civil war ended in May 1918 with the Whites successful; plans to install a Finnish monarchy failed when the Germans were defeated in November 1918, and the country became a democratic republic. Over 32,000 people died – 1.2% of the population, almost three times the number that died in the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. Additionally, there were 80,000 POWs

The Russian Civil War ran from 1918-20, also between competing Reds & Whites; obviously, the Reds won. The effect of seeing other countries support their opponents led Lenin to make deals that would allow the Bolsheviks to cement control over their own state; they’d worry about others’ revolutions later. To avoid further conflict the damaged state was not prepared for, the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Tartu in October 1920 guaranteeing a common border with Finland. The border roughly followed the old boundary as the Grand Duchy, but also gave Finland a port on the Arctic Ocean via transfer of the territory of Petsamo.

Stalin would rectify all those gains after World War II. We’ve talked about that topic at DFO before.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Penguins at Bruins – 7:00PM | NBCSN / Sportsnet
  • Blackhawks at Sharks – 10:00PM | NBCSN
  • Blue Jackets at Kings – 10:30PM | Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • 76ers at Cavaliers – 8:00PM | TNT / TSN
  • Timberwolves at Trail Blazers – 10:30PM | TNT / TSN
• NCAA:
  • Wichita State at Central Florida – 7:00PM | ESPN
  • California at Arizona State – 9:00PM | ESPNU
  • Cincinnati at Tulane – 9:00PM | ESPN
  • Oregon at Washington State – 9:00PM | ESPN2
  • Stanford at Arizona – 10:00PM | FS1
• Women’s Soccer:
  • U.S. vs. Germany – 7:00PM | ESPN2

The Oscars are Sunday. Expect lots of noise around that. Catch up using MakeItSnow‘s Oscar predictions. The Combine gets going in earnest tomorrow morning. Rich Eisen runs his 40 sometime this weekend. There’s a whole page for it. MIGHT BE OVERKILL!