Time Out for Sports Talk: File Maintenance, Spring Cleaning Edition
Todd: Plenty to clear off the ol’ sports hard drive while trying to determine how much I should talk up Jimmy Garoppolo as a potential first round pick in my fantasy football draft. Who knows, maybe the kid turns Tom Brady into the next Wally Pipp. Then again, Pipp never won four championships or was married to a supermodel.
If the DeflateGate story was its own TV series, it would be The Walking Dead. As with those zombies, this story refuses to die unless it somehow gets chopped off at the head. As one sports columnist wrote this week, the federal appeals court judges missed the point, basing their decision to impose the NFL’s four-game suspension of Tom Brady solely on the NFL’s CBA instead of whether there has been any actual hard evidence incriminating Brady.
While the Patriots and Belichick face a short-term issue replacing Brady for up to a quarter of the upcoming season, the much larger issue at hand is Commissioner Voldemort’s unofficial title of Judge/Jury/Executioner when it comes to doling out punishments to both teams and individual players. Sadly, the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through the end of the 2020 season, so don’t expect any change in how the league’s top zombie wields his power unless there’s a beheading…figuratively, of course.
Sticking with the NFL, will the Rams and Eagles eventually be rewarded for trading a combined eleven draft picks (including four first-rounders) to move up to the top two spots of last night’s draft? It’s the second year in a row quarterbacks were taken with the first two picks, but the history of drafting QBs in the first round is checkered at best. Of the 27 first round QBs taken over the last decade, eight of them started one season or less with their drafted clubs. These guys get paid big bucks and come with big risk, yet it doesn’t stop teams from searching for the next great arm with head to match.
Finally, did I hear the Raiders might be moving to Las Vegas? Somewhere Al Davis is beaming that his son would try something like this just to annoy the NFL and follow in dad’s footsteps. Cha-ching.
Quick Bruins thought: so the Black and Gold have posted back-to-back late-season implosions and missed the playoffs two years in a row, yet Claude Julien isn’t fired? Whether Claude deserves the blame is almost a moot point—nine seasons is a long tenure for any pro coach. Perhaps a new voice behind the bench is necessary for a team that’s unfortunately in transition, and perhaps that transition would be less bumpy if management displayed some patience and hung on to their former rising star, Tyler Seguin.
Let’s close with the Boston/Atlanta pro sports connection this week. First, I wonder if the teams shared planes since they were going back and forth at the same time. Seriously though, too bad the Celtics couldn’t get out of the first round, but at least Brad Stevens earned his first two playoff wins and the Green did put a scare into the Hawks. In the end, the Hawks simply weren’t a good matchup for the C’s, compounded by the injuries to Bradley and Olynyk, two of the club’s best 3-point shooters.
Before the series, I tweeted the Hawks would win in seven. My thinking is that Atlanta would neutralize Isaiah Thomas just enough, which is exactly how it turned out despite IT leading the C’s in scoring. Bottom line is that Thomas needs a second scorer, and I’m not talking the occasional offensive explosion from the likes of Marcus Smart or Jonas Jerebko. Danny Ainge has a busy and important offseason ahead to try and bring Boston to the next level.
Quick NBA thought: the Golden State Warriors may have set a new benchmark for the league with their 73-9 regular season, but if they don’t ultimately raise another banner, that record will ring hollow. No single body part will be discussed more over the next few weeks than Stephen Curry’s right knee, as the hopes of the Bay Area ride on the health of that joint.
To baseball, the Red Sox are guaranteed finishing April no worse than .500. Given the early ups and downs of the pitching staff and some of the hitters, their start has probably been enough to stave off John Farrell’s firing for now. Another month of mediocrity and you can bet Dave Dombrowski won’t hesitate to promote Torey Lovullo, MLB’s highest paid bench coach.
Generally speaking, the pitching has improved since the callup of Christian Vazquez. Recovered from TJ surgery, there’s no doubt Vazquez is a prodigy behind the plate and is needed right now to handle some of Boston’s pitching staff. But I truly hope Sox management hasn’t given up on Blake Swihart and the tremendous upside he possesses. Unfortunately the 2016 Red Sox don’t have the luxury of living with Swihart’s growing pains as a backstop.
Biggest case in point regarding head cases is one Clay Buchholz. Even with Vazquez catching him, Clay threw up yet another clunker last night. He couldn’t even beat the Bad News Braves, who may actually be worse than the 1988 Atlanta club that lost 106 games (featuring future Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and John Smoltz as their fourth and fifth starters who combined to go 9-24 that year). On the bright side, the Sox have no contractual obligation to Buchholz beyond this season. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed that Eduardo Rodriguez’s rehab starts go off without a hitch!
Mike: Yay, we get more Deflategate talk. Honestly, I am just so sick of this, I actually want Brady to just sit out the suspension for the simple fact that we can be done with this story and move ahead.
But it looks like we'll have more appeals, it's really just getting silly. And anyone holding out hope that the NFL will settle with Brady for a reduced suspension, you're kidding yourself. The NFL has won, they have no reason to settle, so it ain't gonna happen.
As for the draft, I think the Browns and the Titans made out the best on trading the top 2 picks. They sacrificed the chance to pick one player with a lot of upside, but gained some good picks and the chance to get better much faster. One player isn't going to turn a franchise around all by himself, and as Todd said, those QBs come with big price tags and a big risk of being a bust. Better to get a big price for the pick and get more pieces to rebuild with.
I'm not even going to touch the Celtics and the Bruins, because, frankly, I think Todd has said all that needs to be said about them. I think the Celtics have a bigger upside, especially with all of those draft picks, including a decent chance at the top overall pick this year (thanks Brooklyn). But even if the ping pong balls bounce the Celtics' way, they still need a veteran presence if they want to get back to the Finals.
As for the Bruins, they apparently don't know what they are doing, so why should I try and figure them out?
I'll finish with the thought of the Raiders moving to Las Vegas. What a joke!
Vegas is not going to support a horrible NFL team, and that's what the Raiders are. It's a city made up of mostly tourists, with so much other stuff to do, that the Raiders will get lost amid the neon, fountains and roller coasters. I mean, I suppose you could bring in Wayne Newton to perform at halftime, and that might sell some tickets, but otherwise, it's going to be a bust.
And it's not because the NFL is afraid of being in a city that allows legalized sports betting, that argument doesn't hold water for me anymore. Especially after the NFL got into bed with the daily fantasy companies like Draft Kings and Fan Duel, which is, let's face it, gambling. So, to say they can't go to Vegas is just hypocrisy.
But to paraphrase the legendary Dr. Ian Malcom from "Jurassic Park," the Raiders are so preoccupied with finding out if they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. Sure, the Raiders could move to Vegas, but if they continue to stink, and there is no sign of any hope for improvement, the NFL will be playing second fiddle to Celine Dion, Penn and Teller and a host of second-rate Elvis impersonators in Sin City.
And THAT will be a bigger clusterf**k than Deflategate ever was.
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