74 Days Until the Hall of Fame Game

NFL Notes:

• multiple sites are reporting Vikings defensive lineman B.J. Dubose tore his ACL during one of the team’s OTAs. He is reportedly done for the season.
• Adam Schefter is tweeting that Walter Thurmond has chosen to retire. Feel free to find his twitter to confirm.
• nfl.com reports the Pro Bowl has been moved to Orlando for 2017 and beyond, in a multi-year deal that will likely tie in ESPN and Disney. If it results in Vontaze Burfict beating up the “It’s A Small World” ride, then I’m all for it.
• over at Florio’s Fantastical Wordfarts:
  • the mayor of Las Vegas accurately observes that the NFL doesn’t have a problem with casinos, just governments that won’t play ball and pony up the stadium monies.
  • still on Vegas, word is it’s the Giants, Bears & Browns that are the hard “no”‘s on any franchise there, with the Rooney’s a soft “no” because it would seem hypocritical for a family tied into horse tracks & slot machines to clutch at their pearls over a Vegas franchise.
    • If you hate the Steelers, read this story.
• meanwhile, the prison word salad that is MMQB reports on:
  • Greg Hardy is likely to end up in Atlanta, Detroit or Oakland, teams who believe they are 1-2 pieces away from winning their division and are desperate enough for that to take a one-year chance on such a toxic individual.
  • Power Rankings! The earliest are usually the most accurate!

Here are the viewing numbers for last night:

• NBA: 11.2 – 15.8 million viewers
• NHL: 2.7 – 3.8 million viewers

According to the geniuses at Sports Media Watch, the NHL got murdered in every way possible. It was the lowest-rated opener in 4 years, despite being on a big-4 network in primetime. The OKC-GSW game started during the first intermission, so some viewers who saw Pittsburgh jump out to the 2-0 lead felt they could change, When Nick Bonino scored the game winner with less than 3 minutes to go, Game 7 was just starting the 4th quarter – and the NBA ratings peaked just after 11:00 – during that 11:15-11:30 period at 13.8, or 19.5 million viewers. Nielsen numbers show 30% of Bay-area households were tuned into the game; even the TNT postgame show drew a rating of 4.8, or 6.75 million viewers.

For TNT, it was the third-highest rated non-football sporting event of all time:

That’ll be good for setting ad rates for 2016-17.

Fortunately for the NHL, the NBA set its Finals schedule to run on opposite nights from the Cup, so there won’t be any competition for viewers. But there really isn’t. It’s just one more reason that NHL expansion has been pushed back to 2018 at the earliest.

Finals schedules: ^{(* = if necessary)}

NHL: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Monday, Thursday^*, Sunday^*, Wednesday^*

NBA: Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday^*, Thursday^*, Sunday^*

Tuesday night’s alternative programming:

A&E – Roots: (also available in Canada)

• Episode 1: 6:45
• Episode 2: 9:00

Sundance – The Blues Brothers – 7:00

Tonight, we enter the darkest timeline for one evening, as we get a glimpse of what it’s like with “just” baseball to entertain us:

That’s right Troy. But it’s only one night. Abed?

DAMMIT!

Well then – stealing inspiration from our forefathers, tonight’s mock draft –

“Fictional vacation you’d like to go on”

I choose the Chevy Chase “Vacation” to Wally World.

GO!