The Dugout – Freedom and Football
Tom Brady is Free
And thus Deflategate is no more. Except for the fact that the NFL is appealing the federal ruling that’s gonna allow Brady to skip that whole suspension thing. But don’t expect much from that.
For some reason the NFL came down hard on Brady and the Pats for their little deflating scheme. Was it illegal? Sure. Was it a significant factor in their eventual Super Bowl triumph? Not at all. Did it need some kind of disciplinary ruling? Sure. Would a small fine and a slap on the wrist have been far more fitting than the four game ban? Without a doubt.
“I think that, you know, it’s been a very tough situation for everybody. It’s been a lot of stress on everybody’s families, and I feel bad that anybody’s in the position that we’ve been put in. Hopefully, we can just keep learning from life experiences. I certainly feel terrible for them that they’re not able to be with us right now.” – Tom Brady
The “they” in question are John Jastremski and James McNally, a pair of Pats employees who didn’t get their suspensions overturned with Tommy B.
Hey, but the league got their own back. Anyone notice a particular defending champion missing from this image? This was tweeted out the other day after the ruling had come out. BURN!
In other NFL legal news, Geno Smith will not press charges against IK Enemkpali for the whole breaking of the jaw thing. IKE was released by the Jets and didn’t make the Buffalo Bills 53 man roster, though he will still have a contract, signing on to the Bills practice squad.
The Final 53
At the end of the NFL pre-season, teams must make the necessary cuts to get down to 53 players for the impending season. It’s the final hurdle before you can call yourself a true NFL player and it’s possibly the toughest one of all. No more second and third stringers, this is all about the big time. If you can’t contribute to your team then you don’t make it.
Jarryd Hayne made it.
Capping an incredible journey, Hayne finished the pre-season strong against the Chargers and did enough over the last couple months for a roster spot and a guaranteed contract.
So letting the smoke clear for a bit, how much are we actually gonna see of him in games? Probably more than you think. Hayne has put up a legitimate case to be the punt returner for this team. As a running back, he’ll be scarcer. Carlos Hyde is numero uno, Reggie Bush is the second man. They’ve also got rookie Mike Evans who looks like he can get some hard yards and then Jarryd comes in fourth on the depth chart. Kendall Gaskins ended up on the practice roster, Kendall Hunter (kinda surprisingly) on Injured Reserve.
For now it’s probably best to just marvel at what Hayne has done rather than putting expectations on his performances, but suffice to say he wouldn’t be there if the coaches didn’t think he could contribute. There’s a very real chance he’s inactive for the first game but you never quite know. After all he’s beaten every obstacle in his way so far.
To put it in some context, over a million people play high school football in America each year. 70,000 of them go on to play college ball. Only 256 of them get drafted each year, roughly an extra 50 make final rosters as undrafted rookies on top of that. This is elite company.
The 49ers begin their season on Tuesday, 2.20pm (NZT) at home to the Minnesota Vikings. Pretty much all of their games are gonna be broadcast in Australia. In NZ we’ll probably have to rely on NFL Network on ESPN and not much else. So it goes.
Grin and Bear It
One thing Jarryd Hayne hasn’t managed yet is an NFL touchdown. Tell ya who has one of those? Paul Lasike.
The kiwi RB/FB plucked one out of the air in the Cardinals final pre-season game for a 2 yarder, a play that will have gotten some people’s attention for the hands he showed. Like, to be fair the ball probably wasn’t even meant for him but he saw it hanging there and went and got it. Wicked play, great to see.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to earn a roster spot with the Cardinals, who tend not to play with fullbacks in their current scheme and so his value was more as a running back who can block. Well the blocking is far more Lasike’s game than the running and he found himself cut before the 53 was named.
However as a very coachable rookie who’s nonetheless fresh to the sport, Lasike made for a near-stereotypically perfect practice squad candidate. As to whether the Cardinals would have offered him a spot had he cleared the three-day waiver period, we’ll never know. That’s because in came the Chicago Bears, who scooped him up for their own PS.
Practice squad players are effectively free agents but they get a team contract with a salary. They can be claimed by any other franchise so long as that new team offers them a place on their active roster and teams are allowed up to ten players on the list. No player can remain on a practice squad for longer than three seasons and you’re ineligible once you’ve been on an active roster for 10 games. This means Lasike will train with the Bears regular roster guys but is unavailable to play games without being activated.
It’s a pretty incredible achievement.
Harvey No-Show
Mets ace Matt Harvey is the talk of the town this week, despite football season being just around the corner, after talk emerged that he might just be working under an innings limit that’ll see him disappear down the final month’s stretch despite the Mets still battling hard for that playoff spot.
As of now, NYM are 5 games up on the Washington Nationals (who know a thing or 2 about innings limits themselves, cue Steven Strasbourg reference) and Harvey has hurled 166 and a third inns. Harvey is expected to pitch his next start but what they do after that, who knows? 180 innings is the number mooted and that’s mighty close, probably just two more starts. And then what, try hold off the surging Nats without their best arm in the rotation? Apparently, yeah.
Harvey had Tommy John surgery in October 2013 and missed the entire last season. USA Today is reporting that he’ll skip his following start after the next one and probably only make one scheduled start after that. They even suggested he could be capped at 50-60 pitches in the playoffs should that come to pass.
The man himself then countered the dramas by penning an editorial for The Players’ Tribune in which twists the narrative by saying the limit is to ensure he can go in the post-season. It’s a tricky situation, especially since it was his agent, Scott Boras (a famously player-empowering name in baseball), who came public with the limit. The Mets then admitted to having a plan for Harvey and tried to play it down. Harvey then sided with his agent and his doctor. The fans sided with the team, but surely Harvey will still get a rouser as he tries to put away the Nationals in his penultimate start of 2015. Right now he’s 12-7 with 158 Ks and an ERA of 2.60.
ESPN’s 2015 NFL Player Rankings
- J.J. Watt (Houston Texans)
- Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers)
- Tom Brady (New England Patriots)
- Ndamukong Suh (Miami Dolphins)
- Rob Gronkowski (New England Patriots)
- Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys) T-6
- Calvin Johnson (Detroit Lions) T-6
- Richard Sherman (Seattle Seahawks)
- Darrelle Revis (New York Jets)
- Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers)
SI’s 2015-16 NBA Player Rankings
- LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)
- Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)
- Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors)
- James Harden (Houston Rockets)
- Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers)
- Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder)
- Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers)
- Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies)
- Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
Edelmania
Dunleavy > Jordan
Undercover Linsanity
BUT WHICH ONE!?
Trips
MUTOMBO!
Harry Bday John Wall, Here’s a Wall With Your Face
As created by renowned street artist Madsteez. Apparently it’s valued at US$20k.
Quote of the Week:
“Listen, I think right now is time to clear the air. Because I’ve said many times that we were the most enigmatic, controversial, most talked about, dominant one-two punch. I just want people to know — I don’t hate you, I know you don’t hate me. I called it today a “work beef” is what we had. I was young, you was young. But then as I look at it — we won three out of four, so I don’t really think a lot was done wrong.
We had a lot of disagreements. We had a lot of arguments. But I think it fuelled us. I was thinking at the end of the day, that’s why Phil Jackson never really jumped in because he knew that you say something about me, I get pissed off. I say something off, you get pissed off. And again it works. I know we said a lot of crazy stuff, but I had fun doing it.”
Isn’t it lovely? That’s Shaquille O’Neal talking to Kobe Bryant on his podcast, clearing the air, so to speak. More like burying the hatchet, probably. The Shaq-Kobe feud is often talked about as breaking up a potential dynasty, but it’s not like they didn’t win anything together. It’s also great publicity for Shaq’s new podcast, of course.
Good Week:
Corey Webster (NZ Breakers) – Don’t think this one slipped us by. Massive opportunity for Corey to join in some training runs with the New Orleans Pelicans on trial. Let’s not go assuming he’ll crack the NBA for this, he probably won’t, but it’ll be an amazing experience and it just goes to show that those NBA scouts are watching even when you don’t think they are. Apparently he got spotted in the Tall Blacks series against the Aussie Boomers and his agent did the rest.
Houston Texans – Hey, guess what? There’s been good news. What felt like a bit of a potential disaster team not that long ago now looks fairly decent with the news that Jadeveon Clowney is good to play some part in their season opener and that Arian Foster is healing much quicker than expected – he could even be good to go within a month! Don’t write the Texans off just yet, all they need now is Brian Hoyer to become Tom Brady and boom. Super Bowl.
Kris Bryant (Chicago Cubs) – The Cubbies look poised for a first post-season appearance since 2008 and Bryant hitting massive bombs like this is helping them along that path. 467 feet to the board, a projected distance of 495 feet. That’s the longest hit of the season.
Bad Week:
Roger Goodell – How about for once you hand out a highly publicised suspension that doesn’t immediately descend in to farce?
Atlanta Braves – A team who finally snapped a 12 game losing streak with a win against the Phillies. In those 12 games, they’d been outscored 103-28, with an ERA of 8.14 and they were hitting at .214. Thaaaat is not good.
Tim Tebow (Free Agent) – BARKLEY’S BEEN TRADED, TEBOW’S GONNA MAKE THE ROSTER… oh, wait. Never mind.
Player of the Week:
Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals) – Harp’s on his way to the MVP the way things are going. 9 hits in 17 at bats this week, three of them home runs and he’s scored 11 times. That’s including four runs against the Braves without registering an at-bat that game (four walks)! Just so you know, if you didn’t already, this guy is something else.