Weekend winners
Lee Greeson, Also known as the 10-year-old 5-at-10 Jr., the lad had the difficult task of speaking at his grandfather's funeral on Saturday. And dude crushed it. Absolutely crushed it. Could not have been more proud of the fellow.
Harris English. Sure, we could of put Brandt Sneaker here, and it would have been fine and dandy. Sneds won after all and shot a 59 in the Wyndham event. But Harris had a dazzling weekend when he needed it most and wiggled into the Fed Ex Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive season with his tied for 11th. He moved from 132nd on the Fed Ex Cup points list to 124th this weekend to get into the playoffs and, more importantly, to retain his PGA Tour card.
Ronda Rousey. Kudos to the former MMA champ who, after a crushing defeat that left her thoroughly defeated, continue to reinvent herself. She expanding to acting during her time in the octagon and since retiring from the mixed martial arts world, she is now a WWE champ.
There will dozens of these - if not more - during the next several days, but the joy of players and teammates at the surprise "Walk-on-gets-a-scholarship" announcements for college football teams makes all of us winners. Here's the first one we saw this year, with Auburn giving Devin Adams a ticket to ride.
Justice. Larry Nassar, the former tam doctor for U.S. Gymnastics and at Michigan State who was convicted of sexually abusing so many young athletes, has been forced to switch prisons after he was physically assaulted soon after he was sent into general population at a penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz. Here's betting ol' Dr. Nassar is going to have a rough go of it in just about every prison everywhere.
The Atlanta Braves' Ender Inciarte argues a called third strike to end the sixth inning of Sunday's game against the Colorado Rockies in Atlanta. The Rockies won 4-2 to complete a four-game series sweep.Weekend losers
The Braves. The Rockies came to town like Sherman and left Marietta in smoldering embers. Egad, gang. No es bueno.
Al Sharpton. Yes, the Rev. Al was taking up for Omarosa in her spat with the President on MSNBC. OK, Al, you go. But you may want to check the cue cards. Al quoted, as he said, "his late friend Aretha Franklin" and said President Trump needs to show some "R-E-S-P-I-C-T." Yep. "Whatcha you want? Whatcha you need. Better show some respict. C'mon."
While we're here, let's go with Rudy Giuliani, who dropped this science on NBC on Sunday: "Truth isn't truth." Say what? If truth isn't truth, then what actually makes fake news fake? Discuss.
Kevin Spacey. Oh my gravy. We knew after the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey, who not that long ago was viewed as one of the more bankable stars in Hollywood, that his career was in deep trouble. It's DOA friends. "Billionaire Boys Club" was Spacey's first movie released since the allegations. It made $129 in theaters on its first day of release. Yes. All of 129 dollars, and we did not leave out a thousand or a million or anything else. The movie was released in 10 cities - meaning it averaged $12.90 per theater, which is roughly 1.3 tickets sold per theater, on the first day, considering the current national average of movie ticket prices is $9.27.
The golfer who lost part of finger during a fight between foursomes during a tournament in Massachusetts. Who knew that of all the fights in all the sports, golf fights were the most dangerous.
Yu Darvish. Dude is making almost 15 percent of the Cubs payroll. He lasted one inning in a rehab start and his availability for the season is in doubt.
High school football's opening weekend in Chattanooga. Wow, talk about a washout.
Rules be danged
OK, there was a ton of hand-wringing this weekend about the NFL tackle rules.
A ton.
Through 32 preseason games - there is one Week 2 game left tonight - there have been 49 penalties called on the new "leading with the helmet" rule.
That does not even count the misinterpreted "roughing the passer" call on this sack over the weekend. (One of the great social media laments on this over the weekend was waiting for the white hat to turn on the mic and say, "Personal foul, tackling, on the defense, No. 56. That's 15 yards and a first down. That's 56's first tackling penalty, one more and he will ben ejected.")
And maybe it's not fair to get everyone all jacked up on what can be viewed as a bad call.
But for a lot of us who love watching the game, this should be more troubling than the pregame protests.
Consider the following:
First, the NFL players are outraged by the changes. All of them. Defensive players are furious. Offensive players are understandably fearful that defenders are now going to be forced to go even lower, which means more season-ending injuries to legs, ankles and knees.
Second, make no mistake, this will have a trickle down effect, be it in calls or officiating or how the game is played and taught.
Third, one of the reasons the league says it instituted the rule change is to make sure there still are players wanting to play this game for generations to come. OK, football, is dealing with an image issue, especially with mommas. So the perception of safety and the need for that perceived safer game is important. But if the game gets overhauled to a rich man's rugby, then without fans, the game will no longer exist whether there are players or not.
And forget the argument of "preserving the long-term safety of the sport." That's hogwash. We think player safety is no more than third goal on their list and could be lower. First, the NFL powers are trying to have evidence for the next concussion lawsuit that they are trying to be active in the player safety issue. Second, the league wants more scoring. More scoring equals more highlights, equals more fantasy numbers, equals more celebrations. (Which of course, the fans enjoy but the league hates, so they penalize those too.) Third, the rule change that led to the awful call we referenced in the Vikings-Jags game is called the Aaron Rodgers rule, in which a defensive player can't body slam the quarterback. That rule is not about protecting players, it's about protecting the meal tickets called quarterbacks.
There are several fundamental truths in this situation:
Football is always going to be a dangerous game. And if/when they make it completely safe, then they are going to make it completely boring.
The rules are changed in the idea of player safety, but the players themselves think the NFL has gone too far.
This and that
- Speaking of golf, here are the standings heading into the playoffs with Dustin Johnson leading Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka. Tiger is 20th. Luke List is 29th. Keith Mitchell is 68th. And English as we mentioned is 124th. Stephan Jaeger finished 165th. How awesomely surprising was Keith Mitchell's breakthrough rookie season? He made a smidge less than $1.5 million with four top-10 finishes and two top-threes. On the Fed Ex standings, Mitchell is also ahead of some famous names such as Adam Scott (73rd), Hideki Matsuyama (76th), Jason Dufner (0th) and that no-good scalawag Charl Schwartzel (96th).
- Speaking of golf, and we frequently toss out the career earnings numbers, try this one on for the explosive of PGA purses: Sam Saunders has made more than $3 million in his eight-year golf career. That's almost two times more than the $1.8 million won playing golf by his grandfather. Saunders' grandfather was some dude named Arnold Palmer.
- One more golf stat that surprised: Know how many wins Jordan Spieth had this this year? Bagel.
- Speaking of surprising numbers, did you know the Orioles' tragic number (like a magic number but the exact opposite) to be eliminated is three. It's Aug. 20th people.
- The Little League World Series has been fun to watch so far. And there are a few dudes - one on Panama, one on Hawaii and one on Japan - that if I were the opposing coach, I'd need to see some birth certificates before we started.
- Speaking of a funeral, man there are a lot of things that set the South apart from everywhere else in the world. The way neighbors, friends, church family and family respond in times of heartache is high up there with the weather and the women for what makes living in the South the best.
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Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Have at it.
Question for the group that is sports-related: Jermey Pruitt calling defenses on game day as UT's head coach, good thing or bad? Discuss.
As for Aug. 20, let's review:
On this day in 1866, Andrew Johnson declared the Civil War over. Hmmmm, there are a lot of folks out there wondering if it truly was ever over.
On this day in 2000, Tiger Woods beat Bob May in the PGA Championship to become the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year.
National Lemonade Day and national Bacon Lover's Day. Who does not love bacon, seriously? Not sure I want to know anyone who does not like bacon to be honest.
Don King is 87 today. Robert Plant is 70.
Speaking of the funeral, a an aunt and uncle and cousins brought us a Honey Baked Ham. Is there a a food out there that, when on a plate, that you absolutely pick up and eat a piece every time you pass it, more than Honey Baked Ham? Maybe Chick-Fil-A nuggets, but we're having a hard time coming up with a dunk option better than Honey Baked Ham.
Rushmore of food that you can not walk buy without taking a piece, slice, bite, etc.
Go. And thanks to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers and well-wishes over the last couple of weeks.