Your “Oh Well; When Do Euro Knockouts Start?” Wednesday Open Thread

NFL Reportings:

• Pete Carroll once again says Russell Wilson is really, really, really dialled in. Usually when a coach is that effuse, I’m going to drop said player from my fantasy roster.
• Keeping Jim Caldwell was an “easy decision”, according to Lions new GM Bob Quinn. “Finding” Jim Caldwell proved a more difficult task, so waiting for him to show up is probably the right call.

• First Joe Flacco, now actual-elite player Adrian Peterson is talking about how mentally grinding off-season preparations are. He is about 6600 yards shy of Emmitt Smith’s record, so that’s a salient point in the equation.
• Getting ready for Cowboys training camp is Joseph Randle, who picked up a charge of threatening a sheriff’s deputy while already in jail on other charges. Oh sure, the Cowboys released him last year, but ol’ Double J knows when a man has turned his life around and deserves another chance.
• The Cavs had their parade today, and Jim Brown, Earnest Byner & Bernie Kosar showed up as well.

Finally, Chris Mortensen is going to be given the Dick McCann Award by the Pro Football Writers Association, and will get recognition at the Hall Of Fame enshrinement in August.

Well, that’s about it, isn’t it.

The USMNT put on a valiant effort for about 2 minutes last night, and then Argentina started putting them away, with the dagger being this piece of brilliance by Lionel Messi: (Russian feed because US feed blocked by geolocating.)

https://youtu.be/Hxcy0qg9lZU

Goddamned magic.

So, since no one cares about third place, it’s time for people to care about the Euro knockout stages, where it’s one-and-done and the freewheeling nautre of the first games gives way to boring tactical play and lots of 1-0 or shootout victories.

Stiil, Iceland

This twitter account following the matches live is fantastic. And read fellow Commentist litre_cola’s account of being at this fixture, the third in his series on catching matches & kicking habits. Lucky bastard.

If you want to feel icky, released today was the inventory police seized from the Neverland Ranch in November 2003, an 88 page dossier of disturbing images and documents, which somehow never crossed into public view until early this morning. Here’s a link to the list, and that has a link to the images. Here’s all you need to know if you are curious about clicking through:

Michael Jackson’s California home contained a considerable stash of pornography as well as sexual imagery featuring children, S&M and animal torture, according to purported police reports. The horrid list included books stuffed with images of nude children, sadomasochism, and even strangely morphed images of children’s faces on naked adults.

Tonight’s Sports:

• Copa: Colombia vs Chile – 8:00 – Soldier Field
• NHL: Awards Ceremony – 7:00 – NBCSN; SN (Canada)
  • from Las Vegas; expect the franchise announcement to be made official
    • with a cringe-worthy “roll of the dice” reference from Gary Bettman
  • hosted by Will Arnett
  • list of nominees here.

As always,

FUCK MARK MESSIER!