Your Tuesday Evening Open Thread

NFL Notes:

For some reason, the Rams are all over the wire today:

• They unveiled their new uniforms, which they call a “modern throwback”.
  • According to the merchandizing website they created to explain & sell them, the new look is “threaded with greatness”.
    • They are standard NFL prices, so they clearly want people to buy them.
      • Even though they just bought new ones last year.
  • Reviews have been generally positive. The thing people seem to hate most are the numbers, which are too modern for a throwback look.
    • I just don’t like the “team name” patch on any jersey.
      • It’s like the team expects the concussion to wipe out their memory, so they need the name on the shirt so they know who will treat them.
• They are still arguing the Rams relocation out of St. Louis in court.
  • The judge presiding over the case found, “potentially fraudulent behavior” which will justify probing financial records for the purposes of eventually assessing punitive damages.
    • Via Randy Karraker of ESPN radio in St. Louis, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs in the litigation shall have access to information regarding the financial worth of Commissioner Roger Goodell and five NFL owners: Rams owner Stan Kroenke, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Giants owner John Mara, and former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson.
      • Because a key piece of the collusion evidence is a phone call from 2013 between Kroenke, Goodell, Mara, and Steelers owner Art Rooney.
        • During the conversation, Kroenke said, “I’m going to buy two parcels of land and build a stadium in L.A.,” and was going to try & keep it hidden.
        • To that, Roger Goodell apparently said, “We will respect your confidentiality.”
          • And followed that up by using Rams provided talking points when describing the deal in 2014.

• • The thinking is that the rich people won’t want their finances to become part of a public court record, so they will push for a settlement.
• Pro Football Reference released their compliation of stats dating from 1961.
  • They had people comb through team yearbooks & databases, and believe they have compiled 99% of all stats since the merger, and 95% of the stats from 1960 forward.
    • Records before that, unless officially reported, are considered unreliable.
  • The stat most people are focusing on is sacks, because they have updated their database & Deacon Jones now ranks third all-time, with 173.5.
    • He ranks behind only Bruce Smith (200.5) and Reggie White (198)
    • More impressively, their research shows he led the league five times.
      • No other player since the merger has led the league more than once.

To wrap up, I just want to say “Happy belated” to Viva, as he & I share the same birthday. WineWife & I went out for a lovely Ramen dinner last night, then some cheesecake at a place called “True Confections, and I topped off the evening with a delightful Dead Frog Pale Ale.

Tonight’s sports:

• MLB:
  • All Star Game – 7:00pm | FOX / Sportsnet
• Wrasslin’:
  • NXT – 8:00pm | USA / Sportsnet360
• Futbol:
  • Qatar vs. Panama – 7:00pm | FS1 / Uni / TUDN
  • Honduras vs. Grenada – 9:00pm | FS1 / Uni / TUDN

Jake’s got you tomorrow (unless I get an email), so I’ll see you on Thursday.