NFL News:

• Apparently, Todd Gurley passed his physical with the Falcons.
  • He signed with them a couple of months back, but had to wait until this week to take his tests due to Corona restrictions.
    • It is a one-year contract that includes a $2 million signing bonus, $3.5 million fully guaranteed base salary and $500,000 in incentives.
  • He’s still involved in a grievance with the Rams about unpaid roster guarantees from his previous contract.
    • That would actually give him an additional $5 million.

• The Jets offense is getting together in Florida to work out.
  • It will take place at the Bommarito Performance System in Aventura, Florida, where Le’Veon Bell, Breshad Perriman and Frank Gore train in the offseason.
  • The attraction to the site is that it is a fully lined NFL field and they will be able to conduct workouts in a private setting.
    • It’s a 20-acre complex that includes a chef, a smoothie and juice bar, and recovery facilities.

Today in “The NFL Relates to its Players”:

• George Floyd’s funeral was in Houston today, so the Texans didn’t plan any events so players would be able to attend.
  • Helpfully pointing out only the white attendees, PFT notes that Bill O’Brien & JJ Watt headlined the Texans that attended the service.

• Bill Belichick had Rahsaan Hall, director of the racial justice program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, address the team over Zoom for an hour last Friday.
  • This is the second consecutive year Grumblelord has had Hall address the team, as he feels it is essential to helping educate the players, especially the rookies, about their role model status in society.

• DeAndre Hopkins & DeShaun Watson headline a contingent asking Clemson to change names on the campus.
  • The main request is that the school change the name of the school’s Calhoun Honors College, named after former VP John C. Calhoun (1825-32).
    • The Clemson campus is built on the site of Calhoun’s Fort Hill Plantation, where, according to his bio on the school’s website, he enslaved 70-80 African Americans.
      • During his time in office, he argued in favour of slavery when he was J.Q. Adams’ VP, trying to provide southern balance in a northern Administration.
      • After resigning as Jackson’s VP in 1832, he sat in the Senate for two terms as an elected SC representative.
        • He resigned months before Martin Van Buren would have been sworn in, as a protest over states’ rights.
        • In 1837 he published a treatise where he called slavery a “positive good”.
      • In 1844, President John Tyler named Calhoun Secretary of State.
        • He leveraged his post to secure the admission of Texas into the Union as a slave state.
    • Calhoun’s son-in-law was Thomas Green Clemson, founder of the university.
      • Fun fact about John C. Calhoun: he was the first VP to resign. Granted, as stated, he jumped before he was pushed, and to make a point about states’ rights. Specifically, about slavery. But no one else had dropped the job until Spiro Agnew in 1973. Mind you, Agnew only cheated on his taxes, so…
  • Hopkins says this is why he never mentions Clemson during his TV introductions, preferring instead to use his elementary or high school.
    • He published an Instagram post outlining his beliefs, which you definitely should not read the comments about.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMCxaFlpQD/?utm_source=ig_embed

Beerguyrob special request:

BeerBrother turns 50 this year, and I want to get him a special bourbon or American whiskey to commemorate both that & his one-year anniversary of becoming an American citizen.

I was supposed to attend a bourbon tasting back in Seattle back in May, but it was cancelled due to the ‘rona. This was where I was going to make my decision.

Advice would be greatly appreciated. Back in January he broke out a bottle of Pappy & let me tell you how smooth that was. I thought I was Jack Donaghy for a minute.

Anyway, I thank you in advance for your suggestions, which I will tally in the AM.

Tonight’s … entertainment?:

• Top Rank Boxing on ESPN:
  • Stevenson-Caraballo (super featherweights) – 7:00PM | ESPN
    • Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) vs. Felix Caraballo (13-1-2, 9 KOs) in a super-featherweight bout in Las Vegas.
      • FYI – “featherweight” is at or under 126 pounds.
• Korea Baseball Organization:
  • Doosan Bears at NC Dinos – 2:00 AM | ESPN2

Everything else is crap.

Except for the Bill & Ted Face The Music trailer, which dropped today.

Righteous.