Roughly 13 of 14 SEC teams would trade situations with either ACC power.
At SEC Media Days, Nick Saban said this as a compliment toward his season-opening opponent, and it should be taken as such.
Florida State, especially, is built like an SEC team, you know, like our teams. You think of Florida State, you think of fast, explosive players, which they have a lot of. But they are also a big, physical, play great defense, tough, you know, team. And I think it's probably Jimbo [Fisher]'s experience in this league that sort of why he built his team that way.
Praising good teams that play tough defense, have balanced offenses, and have rabid fan bases as being “built like SEC teams” has long been a thing, especially when it comes to Clemson and Florida State. They’re nearby national champs who have ties to the SEC via rivalries, coaching histories, and cultures. We’ve used a version of the phrase ourselves, to describe the ACC’s 2017 season as likely being more defense-focused than usual.
There’s nothing insulting or offensive about saying Clemson and FSU are like SEC teams.
Saban’s citing the conference brand that he (and Urban Meyer, some older coaches, and a few other top coaches) built, and lots of people have made these comparisons as praise before. Some Clemson and FSU fans describe their programs as being more SEC than ACC.
It’s just not technically accurate.
They’re not like average SEC teams. They’re like SEC elites. The SEC’s been able to brand those two terms as synonymous, but they’re not.
How many SEC teams would trade their 2013-to-2018 circumstances with either Clemson or FSU? All except Bama?
Non-Bama SEC teams have won one title since 2008. Clemson and FSU have titles within the last four years, each winning double-digit games in six of the last seven years.
Plenty of non-Bama SEC teams have simply been bad. FSU and Clemson have no recent losses to The Citadel, Georgia Southern, Indiana, Middle Tennessee State, Rutgers, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Temple, Toledo, WKU, or WKU again, as SEC members have since 2013.
FSU and Clemson have two of the country’s four best head coaches, plus the country’s best defensive coordinator. Who’s the SEC’s second-best coach? Dan Mullen? Gus Malzahn? Kevin Sumlin? B- ... Butch Jones? I’m sorry.
Since 2013, FSU and Clemson are 12-3 against SEC teams, including Bama, and they didn’t even get to play most of the SEC’s weaker schools.
FSU’s beaten Florida in six of the last seven years, with a 28-13 average score (the Gators hold the all-time edge). Clemson dominates its SEC rivalry overall, has beaten South Carolina three times in a row, and won by 49 points last year.
The Bama dynasty is the only SEC team that’s reliably been as good as or better than these two.
So the best way to compliment Clemson or FSU isn’t to say they look like SEC teams.
Hopkins’ play suffered thanks to a bad QB situation last year. But one of the league’s best receivers is due for a major bounce-back.
In 2015, DeAndre Hopkins had a career-best season and established himself as one of the premier wide receivers in football. Despite having an endless parade of mediocre quarterbacks throwing him the ball, Hopkins still put up 111 catches, 1,521 yards, and 11 touchdowns, earning his first Pro Bowl bid. With Hopkins’ rookie contract set to expire after 2016, picking up his fifth-year option was an easy call for the Houston Texans.
Unfortunately, things weren’t quite as rosy in 2016. Brock Osweiler ended up being much worse than anyone could’ve expected, and Hopkins’ production suffered as a result. He finished with a sharp drop in numbers.
Despite the down year, there is every reason to expect Hopkins will go back to dominating opposing defenses. The Texans got rid of Osweiler and have two options for their 2017 starting quarterback. They drafted Deshaun Watson (who happens to be from Clemson, just like Hopkins) in the first round, and they still have Tom Savage, whom Hopkins praised this offseason.
"I like his leadership," said, Hopkins, via ESPN. “Now that he's in that role, it's no surprise to anybody on this field that he deserves that role. He has earned it, not just from playing, but from the chemistry he has built in the locker room with everybody."
There’s still some uncertainty under center, so Hopkins might have to do some heavy lifting again. But he’s proven in the past that he can already do this.
Hopkins wins with perfect routes and beautiful body control
While Hopkins has certain athletic gifts, he wasn’t touted as a physical specimen coming out of college. At the 2013 combine, he measured in at 6’1, 214 pounds and ran a 4.57 40, pretty average numbers for an NFL wide receiver. Hopkins was the second receiver off the draft board that year, but he slipped to the back half of the first round at No. 27.
However, where Hopkins excels isn’t necessarily his ability to outrun defenders or fly past them. Hopkins wins in all the mental aspects of football — an exceptionally crisp route runner with sticky hands and an impeccable sense of timing. Hopkins’ biggest talent is using his hand-eye coordination to track the ball and grab it at exactly the right time.
Although Hopkins’ game is more cerebral than physical, you only need to watch some highlight clips to see how deadly he is in that part. He’s one of the best in football at using his entire body to locate the ball and make plays.
Hopkins became the Texans’ new No. 1 receiver after Andre Johnson left for the Indianapolis Colts in 2015. He enjoyed that breakout season even with the constant turnover at quarterback. Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, and Brandon Weeden all started games for the Texans that year. It’s a huge credit to Hopkins’ talent level that he still had the year he did.
Then 2016 came around. And with Osweiler coming to town, the prevailing thought was, “hey, maybe Hopkins would finally have a good quarterback to work with. Who knows what heights he could yet achieve with Osweiler?”
Well, about that ...
Osweiler was a trash fire who held back Hopkins
I don’t think we should dwell on Osweiler any longer than we have to. Long story short — he was bad, the Texans’ offense went in the tank with him under center, and Hopkins never came close to his 2015 stat line. He recorded only 78 catches and 954 yards, along with just four touchdowns. His targets went down from 192 to 151, and his catch rate plummeted from 57.8 percent to 51.7. Normally a receiver’s catch rate falling that far is cause for alarm, but Osweiler’s scattershot accuracy played a fairly big role in that.
Despite the wildly inconsistent year, Hopkins closed out 2016 strong. He went off for seven catches and 123 yards in Week 17, helping the Texans clinch the AFC South, then scored a touchdown in the Wild Card win over the Oakland Raiders. Often, Hopkins will still get his, even when the offense around him can’t do anything.
After shipping Osweiler to the Cleveland Browns and drafting Watson, the Texans should have renewed optimism for the offense. Bill O’Brien finally has a worthy young quarterback he can develop in his image, while Hopkins gets a fresh slate, whether Savage or Watson earns the job.
Still only 25 years old, Hopkins will be a free agent next year, unless the Texans hammer out an extension before training camp. If they don’t, he’ll have several million reasons to replicate his 2015 numbers, so he won’t be lacking for motivation at all. He also has yet to miss a single game in four seasons. If Hopkins doesn’t get back to the 100-catch mark, then something went wrong along the way.
Why should you be excited about Hopkins?
Who doesn’t enjoy watching athletically gifted wide receivers? I like Julio Jones. I like Odell Beckham Jr. I like Mike Evans. Those guys all use their freakish, God-given talents to separate themselves from the rest of the league.
Hopkins’ pure athletic gifts don’t pop like those men, but he succeeds in a different way. It’s not that he’s a stiff on the field — far from it — but there’s a certain crispness to his game that makes him so fun to watch. He’s not the fastest or the strongest or the tallest guy out there, but everything Hopkins does just feels right. He runs routes right, he beats man coverage right, he knows where the ball is going and how to get there right. He doesn’t have to outrun you, because he’ll just outsmart you instead.
Put simply, Nuk is unique, and that helps him stand out in the NFL and highlight a special talent who deserves more time in the limelight. Here’s to many more years of him being the Texans’ most exciting offensive player.
Without Phil Kessel, the Penguins probably don’t win back-to-back Stanley Cups. Less than two months after that incredible feat, Pittsburgh columnists are floating the idea of a Kessel trade.
I believe Phil Kessel will be traded. It might not happen this week or this month or even this offseason. But I believe it will happen sooner rather than later.
I know “fake news” is all the rage right now, but I think most people would agree that “sources” is more trustworthy than “I believe” when it comes to reporting.
It was clear in June, by the end of the Penguins’ second consecutive Stanley Cup run, that the organization wasn’t thrilled with Kessel.
Oh, wow. That would certainly be something! What makes that clear?
He scored 23 goals in 82 games during the regular season, not nearly enough for a player with his marvelous shooting skills. He had a huge goal — one of the most significant of the postseason — to beat Ottawa, 1-0, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final but scored just two more goals in the final 11 playoff games. Even though he had 23 points in the 25 postseason games, it was hard to find anyone in organization to say he was playing well.
Cook has no quotes from “anyone in the organization” to back that up. Even an anonymous quote from a front office source saying “I don’t think he was playing well” would’ve sufficed.
We have yet to find anything here that is not solely Cook’s opinion.
My belief is Evgeni Malkin wasn’t thrilled to play on the same line with Kessel. And Sidney Crosby? Sullivan acknowledged Crosby and Kessel have no chemistry together. None.
There’s that “belief” again. It irks me when columnists write about how a player feels about a teammate without direct quotes or evidence. Are we supposed to believe that Cook FaceTimes Malkin after games?
And if so, why are these not available for public consumption? They would be great!
As for that last point, here’s some actual quotes from Sullivan after Crosby and Kessel started clicking in February 2016. From Cook’s own paper, no less!
“It was more, I think, my gut feeling that maybe this might work,” coach Mike Sullivan said Friday after practice at Consol Energy Center. “Sometimes, when players don’t play together for a while and you put them together there’s a spark. Our hope was that that would occur.
“Phil, obviously, is a goal-scorer. He can really shoot the puck. I think regardless who Sid plays with, he is a guy who is going to make everybody around him better. That’s the nature of his game. So, we felt that the time was probably right, given the fact that we struggled to generate goal-scoring a few games in a row. Maybe if we tweaked it a little bit, we might get a spark?”
Maybe that magic dissipated this season. I’ll grant you that. But Cook saying Sullivan believes the two have no chemistry (NONE!!!!) is intellectually dishonest.
It’s no secret that Kessel often drives Sullivan crazy.
If it’s no secret, where’s the public evidence to back that up? When you’re covering a player or coach, you can’t just toss out what they think of one another into the public sphere without proof. If you’re going to abandon good journalistic faith to serve a narrative, though, at least try to hide it by saying “I’ve heard” or “those close to the team say.”
I’m just trying to help you, Ron.
I’m guessing he has produced the same reaction all the way up the company ladder, from Jim Rutherford to Mario Lemieux.
YOU’RE GUESSING? THEN DON’T PUT IT IN YOUR COLUMN, RON.
It’s no secret that Kessel hates puppies. In fact, I’m guessing Kessel hates all kinds of babies. Human babies. Kittens. Bear cubs. Tadpoles. I wrote this in a column on the internet, so I am to be believed. Share this with many people. Spread my narrative. Vindicate my opinions and sense of self-importance in this market.
Cook goes on to talk about how Rick Tocchet was quite close to Kessel, and how important he was to Kessel’s success in Pittsburgh. And here, he does use quotes. Convenient how he uses actual reporting when it serves his narrative.
And, to be fair, there’s a decent argument in here. If Kessel struggles, it’ll be worth asking him if he misses Tocchet. Then we can hear his answer and let that speak for itself.
Instead, we’re going to judge this whole situation months ahead of actually having results to judge. Cook ends Sullivan’s quote with a note about Kessel and Tocchet as proof he’s onto something here.
“In particular, he has a real good relationship with Phil. They spend a lot of time together.”
Tocchet didn’t just help keep Kessel’s head in the game. He served as a buffer between Kessel and Sullivan.
Don’t underestimate the importance of that role.
I won’t, and neither should fans. But let’s not overestimate it, either. Not without some concrete evidence that Tocchet was the only thing keeping Sullivan and Kessel from butting heads. I see none of that here.
The last part of Cook’s column is actually important. Kessel might be moved because of his contract. That’s a legitimate reason to think about this scenario. It has facts behind it. He makes $6.8 million a season. Malkin and Crosby already take up a ton of cap space, and soon the Penguins will need to sign Matt Murray. GM Jim Rutherford has never been one to hold onto players when he can move them to improve the present and future (see: the James Neal trade).
It is more than likely Kessel doesn’t live out his contract in Pittsburgh (it ends in 2021-22, after all). The only concrete reason to think that, though, is financial roster practicality. Not the personal relationships between Kessel and his team.
That’s nothing but speculation resting on the flimsiest of bases.
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Good luck to the Penguins trying to move him.
Good luck to the team continuing to have to deal with him without Tocchet.
I think they’ll be fine on both counts, Ron.
Columnists are different than beat reporters. Beat reporters usually stick to the facts they’ve corroborated with sources. Columnists offer opinions. Sometimes the two professions cross paths, but not often.
I don’t know Cook personally. I’ve never heard of him before now. He might be a nice man who just wrote a bad column. But he writes for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a reputable newspaper that also employs the likes of Sean Gentille and other reporters who do good work with sources and fact-based analysis. Stuff like this does those people a disservice.
It is, unfortunately, all-too common in the sports world. A quick Google search for “Phil Kessel Toronto media” will show how this exact scenario played out before he was run out of the Leafs’ organization. Or just look at the numerousarticles that assassinated Tyler Seguin’s character before the Bruins traded him to Dallas.
In each of those three examples, you’d find pockets of fandom that stood behind the team’s decision to move on. Many of them fall back on these “reports” about personality, teammate infighting or general drama.
Columnists, beat writers, radio hosts — their voices are wielded as truth by much of their audiences, regardless of the actual reporting behind their words. It takes one column like this from Cook to plant the seed of negative public opinion against Kessel. Whether he intends that or not (and I don’t think he does) is beside the point.
So I (hopelessly) wish these people would wield their words more carefully. Or at least frame their opinions as such instead of shrouding them in phrases like “believe” or “guessing” that kinda-sorta imply you might know something your readers don’t. And if you do, then say so.
Have a little respect for the people you cover and the audience who places their trust in you.
Querrey took down Murray in the quarterfinals, while Marin Cilic bested Gilles Muller, the man who beat Rafael Nadal.
Top seed Andy Murray is out of Wimbledon after being upset in the quarterfinals by 24th-seeded American Sam Querrey. Murray has struggled off and on this year, but looked good on the grass courts of Wimbledon until he ran into Querrey, who won a five-set battle, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-1.
Querrey hit 27 aces to Murray’s eight, and won 84 percent of his first serves. He converted on eight of 12 break point attempts, while Murray managed just three out of seven. Querrey hit 70 winners to Murray’s 33, but he’ll definitely be drained after the five-set match.
Marin Cilic, the seventh seed, made it past Gilles Muller, the 16th seed, also in five sets. Muller had a marathon match of nearly five hours in the previous round against Rafael Nadal, and he saw the court for more than three hours against Cilic. In the end, he couldn’t make it two huge wins in a row and he found himself eliminated.
At the time of writing, Roger Federer is on the court against Milos Raonic, and Novak Djokovic is playing against Tomas Berdych in the other two quarterfinals. We’ll update with results from those matches when they complete.
The women’s semifinals are already set and will take place on Thursday. Those semifinals will see sixth seed Johanna Konta take on 10th seed Venus Williams, and in the other one 14th seed and 2015 champion Garbine Muguruza up against unseeded Magdalena Rybarikova.
Angelique Kerber, the top seed for the women, was beaten by Muguruza in an earlier round. The men’s semifinals will take place on Friday, with the women’s final on Saturday and the men’s final closing things out on Sunday.
Keep up with all the men’s singles action here and all the women’s singles action over here.
Men’s Quarterfinals
No. 24 Sam Querrey def. No. 1 Andy Murray, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-1 No. 2 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 11 Tomas Berdych No. 3 Roger Federer vs. No. 6 Milos Raonic No. 7 Marin Cilic def. No. 16 Gilles Muller, 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-5, 5-7, 6-1
The Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor press tour is officially underway after starting Tuesday in Los Angeles. It will head to Toronto, Canada on Wednesday and is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the event will be streamed live on YouTube via Showtime, as well as by the UFC. Television coverage will be provided by Fox Sports 2 and the event will also be streamed on the Fox Sports GO App.
While the boxing match between the two stars on Aug. 26 is still more than a month away, the buzz surrounding the fight ramped up Tuesday when the pair met face to face for the first time.
McGregor guaranteed that Mayweather will be unconscious within four rounds.
Mayweather promised a knockout of his own — telling McGregor he can either leave the ring on his back or on his face.
But there are still plenty of reasons to continue to watch the press tour as it rolls into Canada, before hitting Brooklyn and London on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
For one, there are going to be eyes on the attire of both fighters. McGregor wore a suit that was pinstriped with dozens of “fuck you’s” and clowned Mayweather for wearing a track suit. What does the wardrobe look like for both for the remainder of the week?
More importantly, though, are questions about the formats of the remaining press conferences. In the world of mixed martial arts, McGregor turned them into spectacles with quick retorts to claims and comments made by other fighters. In Los Angeles, he didn’t have that opportunity.
Instead the presser opened with lengthy speeches from boxing promoters in front of an impatient crowd. When McGregor interrupted Mayweather’s turn for a speech, his microphone was cut.
Either the format of the press tour will be changed or McGregor will have to adjust to a style that he didn’t anticipate or prepare much for. In Toronto, we’ll get our second look at the two facing off and it promises to offer plenty more quotes and sound bites.
“I keep waiting for the Media Day where I come here and we can just talk about our players,” he said outside the main ballroom. “For whatever reason, the journey we’ve been on — obviously, some our fault — has continued for a long time. This’ll be my sixth Media Day, if my memory’s right. Be the fifth time we’re talking about something other than our team.”
Speaking at the podium on Thursday, Freeze said in his opening statement that he would not answer any questions regarding the current NCAA investigation, but he did talk a bit about it.
Hugh Freeze at SEC Media Days: “It seems like every year I’m here there are other things I have to talk about other than our kids"
Sometimes you make decisions that probably aren't the sharpest. Like I said earlier, I did mean that with sincerity. I really want everyone around our program and everyone within our program to do everything the right way. My parents raised me and Proverbs said a good name is to be desired above great riches.
And when things are that, and above that, I've kind of come to grips with the fact that my name -- I'm okay with people that make whatever decisions they make about me.
Obviously, I serve a God that I want to make his name great. And so it does bother me with that. And so that tweet was, you know -- the intent was, man, let's find out what's going on and look into it. Do I regret doing it? Absolutely.
I can’t find much in the 2013 and 2014 transcripts that’d count as off-field distractions, other than a reference to Ole Miss’ surprising 2013 recruiting class, a series of questions about how Freeze’s daughter would rank the league’s head coaches, and a hard-hitting question about Freeze’s already-public biography (“Did you win four state high school girls basketball championships?”).
In 2012, his first SEC Media Days as head coach, he was asked about Steve Spurrier saying he’d rather get to play Ole Miss than have to play LSU (Freeze: “2013, they're on our schedule. We will circle that date and maybe change his perspective” — I’m not sure what that’s about, since they haven’t played since 2009), some inherited academic troubles, and installing a brand-new offense as a first-time college head coach against a tough schedule. Nothing too rough.
So out of six Media Days, my count of the number of times the Rebels have had to deal with serious clouds of grave topics and Freeze’s differ, but that’s fine.
Now everyone’s wondering if Conley is the lost Gasol.
Marc Gasol has developed an interesting theory about his teammate Mike Conley: That perhaps they’re half-brothers. What began with a simple photo now has Marc pondering the nature of his family, and the relationship with his teammate.
It began on Monday when Marc Gasol posted a photo of him hanging out with his brothers.
Normally things would end here. A laugh between teammates, a nod to Conley looking like the youngest Gasol. Everyone goes on with their Summer. But the resemblance gnawed at Marc from within. He began to question everything he thought and knew.
Then, while watching the ESPYs and seeing Conley on the red carpet, it struck him like a lightning bold. It couldn’t be ... but ... what if?
Wasn't your dad a gold medalist in Barcelona '92?! Adrià was born in '93... I gotta call my mom... pic.twitter.com/iRE3AfhaIN
It appears Gasol’s theory is that Adria Gasol and Mike Conley are actually twins, separated at birth and divided between Spain and the U.S. This would mean that all the Gasol boys share the same mother, but Adria’s dad is actually Mike Conley Sr.
It seems ridiculous, but once again Conley is on board, too.
Wayne Rooney has had an incredible career. But his return to Everton reminds us of what he was supposed to be.
As Wayne Rooney accepts the inevitable and moves into his epilogue, it seems as good a time as any to think back to the opening chapters. That goal against Arsenal; those giddy few weeks where Euro 2004 seemed to be surrendering at his feet; the debut hat trick that followed his move to Manchester United.
The hype.
Generally speaking, and perhaps a little paradoxically, sporting hype gets really bad press. At times, it can have a direct and malign influence on those subject to it. Some players collapse under the weight of hype; others come to believe it and get carried away. And there is always the suspicion that something cynical is going on, that this force is being whipped up by somebody who is trying to sell something. Hype can be leveraged by advisers and agents to secure transfers and to inflate fees. It is not always leveraged wisely.
So it is, at best, something to be wary of. And in Rooney's case, though it's impossible to criticise the goals or the trophies he amassed in his Manchester United career, there's an accompanying sense of compromise. Yes, he scored 253 goals while wearing red. But they weren't all dipping 25-yard volleys over a flailing goalkeeper, and for a while there, it looked like they could have been.
In part, this is just how things work. Time marches in a linear direction, and the young and exciting become the old and careworn. Rooney, who once seemed like he could become anything, and maybe even everything, had to become something. And something is always less exciting than anything because it is limited, bound, and defined.
This is always particularly stark when it comes to sport, where careers can be redirected in the tweak of a hamstring or the break of a bone. So we end up in the strange situation where Rooney, measured against most other footballers, has had an extraordinary career. But measured against the projected and imagined version of himself that we all came up with when he was 16, he doesn't quite stack up.
There's the hype in action. First it provokes the imagination to set unlikely and perhaps impossible standards, and then it provokes a backlash as the poor victim fails to deliver that which was never really promised in the first place.
But there is pleasure there too. Hype can come from cynical places and have ruinous consequences. But going back to Rooney's early years is a reminder that it often comes from the best places of all: hope, joy, excitement, and optimism. Watching young footballers announce themselves isn't just fun in itself. It is inspirational, if that's not too grand a word. When Rooney larruped the ball over David Seaman, he gave the entire footballing-watching world the excuse to slip its imagination into the highest possible gear and carry itself away.
This kind of thing is important. Despite the best efforts of Sky Sports, there is still more time when football isn't happening than when it is. Yet this time is still filled with football. It is filled with wish lists and transfer gossip. It is filled with best 11s, Sporcle quizzes, history, and nostalgia. It is filled with discussions, and arguments, and other people's wrongness; that's where the game of opinions comes in. And when somebody like the young Rooney turns up, it is filled with wonder. Just how good can he be?
Even though the eventual answer came with caveats — "really very good, but in occasionally quite unexciting ways and with a long and noticeable decline that got quite weird toward the end" — the memory of that wonder remains. It's not his fault, really, that he never fulfilled everything that everybody imagined for him; perhaps he never could. (Certainly, his failure to lift England's second World Cup isn't entirely on him.)
Surrendering to hype may make any disappointment sharper, but it's difficult to avoid without willful contrarianism and it comes with its own consolation. Watching young Rooney was exhilarating. Getting carried away was inevitable. His emergence was a communal moment of shared optimism, centred on the simple joy of watching a footballing talent unfold and keep unfolding, without apparent limits. Wherever that optimism went, it was great fun at the time.
Twenty years after drafting Dirk Nowitzki with their last lottery pick, the Mavericks may have struck gold again.
LAS VEGAS — Rick Carlisle has always loved Dennis Smith Jr.’s game. But it was a pre-draft meeting, weeks before Smith’s name was called on the Barclays Center stage, where Carlisle became convinced this was the Mavericks’ guy.
“I liked his combination of confidence and humility,” the Dallas Mavericks head coach tells SB Nation. “When talking to him before the draft about our situation, he just had a strong belief in himself. That was clear. He had that belief without being cocky or arrogant. I admire that.”
That humble confidence is a huge credit to how Dennis Smith Sr. raised his son and daughter as a single parent in Fayetteville, N.C, molding Junior — as he calls him — into who he is now. It’s why Smith will insist Jr. is added to the back of his Mavericks jersey.
“It’s more than basketball with that,” Smith says when asked about Carlisle’s words. “That’s the way I was raised to be as a man. That’s a credit to my whole family, especially my father. It just translates from being a man on to basketball.”
After spending time with the senior Smith in Las Vegas this week, Carlisle agrees:
“I’ve gotten to know his dad a little bit, sat with him during the second game, and I can see why he’s a kid with strong character.”
Smith, the ninth overall pick in last month’s NBA Draft, joins the Mavericks as a future face of the franchise, something made even more important due to Dirk Nowitzki’s career drawing near an end. The Mavericks hadn’t owned their own top-10 draft pick since Nowitzki was selected No. 9 in 1998. They felt certain that Smith was a top-five talent in the draft, putting him out of their reach.
But when the New York Knicks selected Frank Ntilikina one pick before, Carlisle says the Mavericks draft room erupted into “thunderous applause” knowing the guy they truly wanted was still on the board.
Through three games in the Las Vegas Summer League, the 19-year-old Smith is averaging 18 points on 47 percent shooting while adding five assists per game. In his first matchup, he wowed the Thomas & Mack Center crowd with his pregamedunks. The following day, he dropped 25 points on the Suns. In Game 3, he stuck a dagger three-pointer into the hearts of the Miami Heat.
After Smith was selected on draft night, Carlisle said he expected him to be the team’s opening day starting point guard. Whatever you’ve heard about Carlisle’s reputation for favoring veterans over rookies, set it aside.
“He’s a kid who’s gotta be out there,” Carlisle says. “I’ve projected him as a starter, and so far, I’m not coming off of that.”
As one member of the Mavericks front office tells me: “He might be even better than we thought.”
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Asked if he believed he should have been the draft’s top selection, Smith doesn’t hesitate.
“Of course,” he says immediately.
But Smith is also self aware.
“Everybody believes they should be the first pick, but that’s not everybody’s destiny,” Smith says after his third summer league game. “It can’t be. Mathematically, that don’t add up.”
Smith may not forget the eight teams who passed on him anytime soon, but he feels “ultra thankful” to end up in the situation that he did. The four teams drafting before Dallas were the Knicks, Bulls, Magic, and Kings. None of them have a proven young core like the Mavericks.
That idea would have been laughable just a year ago. Last June, the Mavericks’ two best prospects were Justin Anderson and Dwight Powell, who will both have to fight to even play consistently next season. Even last year, Mark Cuban was still pushing the team towards a playoff run with established veterans, only to see Dallas start the year 4-17.
“You react to the circumstances you’re in,” Mark Cuban told SB Nation. “Some of the guys that were older were hurt. We’re not going to get any younger (that way).”
So the Mavericks jettisoned Andrew Bogut and Deron Williams when it was clear they weren’t helping. After signing 25-year-old Harrison Barnes and 26-year-old Seth Curry in July 2016, they nabbed undrafted rookie Yogi Ferrell from the recycling bin and traded for 23-year-old Nerlens Noel on a steal of a deal. Now, they’ve added Smith, who might be the most important of them all.
(Noel, a restricted free agent, hasn’t re-signed yet — the two sides are still “not close,” a league source tells SB Nation — but it’s still a safe assumption he ends up back in Dallas before the summer’s up.)
It’s a sensational rebuilding project completed in Dallas in just a year. In a stacked Western Conference, there’s a good chance the Mavericks fall short of the playoffs. But for the first time in more than a decade, that’s fine. The team’s timeline to really compete remains in the future.
When exactly? The answer depends on Smith and his development.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Smith is nervous for his first game, he admits afterwards, but it hardly shows. In fact, his calmness under pressure is what impressed his coaches the most. Both Carlisle and Mavericks summer league coach Jamahl Mosley laud one sequence where Smith quickly moves past several bad plays. That defies nearly every predraft scouting report, which listed “attitude” as a negative.
“He comes to the bench, his head’s down for half a second, I said something to him really quick, and next thing you know he comes out and makes three (good) plays,” Mosley says. “Things like that, most young players are in the tank for the next five possessions. He turned it around just like that.”
In other areas, Smith marches ahead. He can weave through traffic like an out-of-control taxi cab or bully his way into defenders, dislodging them and clearing space for a short shot. He has full confidence in his jump shot, which he’ll use to fall away in the lane when a defender stops him a little short, or step back for a three when a poor soul gets switched onto him in a pick-and-roll.
His passes tend to find open teammates rather than him threading the needle to someone where it looked like there was no space. But given how much work it takes to stop Smith from scoring, there’s will always be open teammates when the ball’s in his hands.
“He’s aggressive without being out of control,” Carlisle says. “He’s got vision, he sees people, he delivers the ball on time and on target, and he’s going to get the ball in the basket.”
Smith must improve defensively, a side of the ball that was mostly ignored during his one year at NC State. But he talks about it openly, calling his work on that end a process while describing the methods that he’s hoping to perfect. Everything the Mavericks know about Smith — and everything that Smith has shown himself so far — points to him being a player who will take those challenges in stride.
After Smith scores 16 points and the dagger three in his third summer league game, he is asked to compare himself and his game to another point guard. At first, he demurs, not wanting to play that game.
“I watch about every point guard in the league,” Smith says. “It’s a long list if I start naming names.”
But when pressed, Smith relents: “I’ll say (Russell) Westbrook and (Derrick) Rose.”
Two point guards, of course, who have both won NBA MVP.
Humble confidence. There’s no doubt Smith has that.
Kevin Durant convinced everyone he was grumpy at the ESPYs when Peyton Manning roasted him, but the NBA Finals MVP is having the last laugh. Durant set the sports world aflame on Wednesday night when it appeared he couldn’t take a joke about joining a super team.
Honestly, this makes sense. It’s not dissimilar to the roasts during the beginning of the Academy Awards, when one actor is always cast as the “overly upset one” when the camera roams the crowd.
What made this work was how well KD sold it. Even with his mom next to him cracking up, Durant didn’t so much as smirk. He internalized it all and made everyone (including us) believe it was real.
The best part is that KD kept it up after the show was over, refusing to hint that it was a gag.
Simmons was a restricted free agent headed into his third season after spending his first two with the Spurs. By renouncing him, Simmons joins the open market and is able to sign with any of the 30 teams. As a restricted free agent, the Spurs would have had the option to match any contract he signed.
Since the Spurs are still reportedly interested in signing him, this is bizarre. By renouncing Simmons, they immediately lose leverage with him and against the rest of the league. Other teams can negotiate with Simmons at their preferred price, rather than negotiate with him at a price they believe the Spurs wouldn’t match. It would make sense that Simmons would stay somewhat loyal to San Antonio, the team that discovered him and a stellar franchise. Still, allowing Simmons into the open market rather than retaining his rights — which had a nearly negligible $1.5 million cap hold — doesn’t make much sense on the surface.
If San Antonio didn’t plan on re-signing Simmons, they still didn’t need to renounce him. He would have been free to sign elsewhere, and the Spurs just wouldn’t have matched. In fact, this would hurt Simmons’ leverage to get more money with other teams if this were the case.
Still, this is only what we know from a salary cap perspective, and the Spurs have been fleecing the rest of the league for more than two decades. It’s safe to assume that they have a totally reasonable plan for why they did this. Maybe it’s a show of faith or gesture of good will, showing they’ll do Simmons a “favor” (that’s debatable) while hoping to talk him down to their price.
Either way, it’s a strange situation for Simmons. Last year, the 6’6 guard played 78 games, averaging about 18 minutes and six points on 42 percent shooting.
That lawsuit dropped the day before Freeze’s time at SEC Media Days. Freeze was gonna be asked about NCAA crap anyway, but Nutt’s timing made things even heavier.
One tactic often used by people who have to speak in public during times of turmoil: just keep talking, to cut down on the amount of time during which you can be asked questions. Each coach gets an opening statement, and Freeze’s have gotten longer and longer during his time as an SEC head coach.
This year, he ambled through his entire depth chart (something Will Muschamp does every year, but with maximum pace and intensity), including all throughout special teams.
Special teams-wise, I believe Gary Wunderlich is one of the better in the country, and Will Gleeson has been a solid punter for us. Excited about Mac Brown, who is a punter that we redshirted last year out of Minnesota, that really has a strong leg and can flip the field. Chadwick Lamar and Jack Propst will battle it out for long snapper duties.
It just kept going. He might’ve read from Faulkner. It was a masterful waste of time.
Hugh Freeze is filibustering. There's some philosophy, some theology, some football, but make no mistake, this is a filibuster.
Blazer started ratting out his former friends after he was convicted of money laundering and wire fraud, among other charges.
American soccer executive Chuck Blazer has died at the age of 72. His lawyers announced his death on Wednesday night. Blazer was a pioneer in the American soccer business, but was most famous for his corruption, and for cooperating with the FBI’s investigation into corruption in soccer in order to avoid jail time.
Blazer’s cause of death was announced as rectal cancer. Blazer also said that he had diabetes and coronary artery disease in 2013. He was hospitalized regularly after he resigned from FIFA in that year.
Before the United States Department of Justice handed down the first of several indictments of corrupt soccer executives, the New York Daily News reported that Blazer was working as an informant for the FBI. Their reporting revealed some incredible things about Blazer’s lifestyle— he got CONCACAF to buy him a Hummer even though he lived in Manhattan, he didn’t pay his taxes for more than 10 years, and he had a second apartment in Trump Tower that was exclusively for his cats.
In 2011, Blazer agreed to start working for the FBI in order to keep himself out of prison. He continued to work for CONCACAF and FIFA, gathering information for two years before resigning. In 2013, he plead guilty to tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. He was ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution, but did not serve any time.
These are ultimately the things that Blazer will be remembered for. Most of the positives will be an afterthought, but there were plenty of them. The professionalization of the United States men’s national team, the founding of the United States women’s national team, and the successful bid for the 1994 World Cup all happened while Blazer was an executive with U.S. Soccer. He’s also widely credited for playing a central role in the founding of MLS, the Confederations Cup, and the Club World Cup, as well as changing how FIFA sells television rights for the World Cup.
Perhaps Blazer did these things for the sole purpose of enriching himself and his friends, rather than to make soccer better. Regardless, they are still things that Blazer did, and his actions led to more opportunities for soccer players around the world, especially in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
But Blazer did good things in a way that created a model for executives and middlemen to siphon money into their own bank accounts, away from players and coaches. A total of 41 people have been charged by the DOJ for doing what Blazer taught many of them how to do, in twoseparate indictments. Many of them are people who Blazer happily did business with for decades, then ratted out. More are either yet to be caught, or are finding legal ways to make money off soccer players and coaches without doing anything to help them.
For better or worse, American soccer was modernized through Blazer’s vision and actions. He is among the most important figures in soccer history. But he is likely to be remembered as doing more harm than good.
The X Games continue on Friday and here’s how you can watch the action.
The 2017 X Games from Minneapolis continue on Friday with several big events. The biggest action sports stars in the world are competing for medals and prize money in BMX, Skateboard and Moto X competition.
Coverage of the X Games is provided by ESPN and ABC. That includes television coverage on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, as well as live online streaming via ESPN3 through WatchESPN in your browser or the ESPN app on your phone or other connected device.
There will also be live streamed events exclusively going to Samsung Gear virtual reality headsets, a unique endeavor. On Friday, ESPN2 will have the BMX dirt qualifiers on television, and ESPN will air the BMX big air final and moto X freestyle final.
The BMX street final is the Gear VR exclusive event, beginning at 6 p.m. ET, and will be streamed on ESPN3 later on at 11:30 p.m. The day’s events begin with the first BMX dirt qualifiers, the skateboard big air qualifiers and the men’s skateboard street qualifiers on ESPN3 beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Below is all the information you need to watch the action on Thursday, including the full schedule of televised and streamed events.
1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.: Fruit of the Loom BMX Dirt Qualifier; America’s Navy Skateboard Big Air Qualifier; Monster Energy Men’s Skateboard Street Qualifier (ESPN3)
2 p.m. - 3 p.m.: Fruit of the Loom BMX Dirt Qualifier (ESPN2)
6 p.m. - 7 p.m.: BMX Street Final (Samsung VR)
7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.: Women’s Skateboard Street Final (ESPN3)
9 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.: The Real Cost BMX Big Air Final; Pacifico Moto X Freestyle Final (ESPN)
The World Series of Beach Volleyball continues on Friday and here’s how you can watch.
The World Series of Beach Volleyball continues on Friday with men’s and women’s pool play, as well as the AAU Junior National Championships. The FIVB-sanctioned event will run through the weekend and features some of the best domestic, international, junior, and amateur volleyball players in the world.
Friday’s action begins at noon ET and play will run throughout the day until 6 p.m. The only television coverage will be provided by ESPN beginning at 5 p.m. for the women’s quarterfinals.
But other action on the day will be streamed live online via ESPN3. That is available via WatchESPN in your web browser or on the ESPN app on your phone, beginning at noon and running to around the time the television broadcast starts.
The action began Thursday with one of the most anticipated matches in the sport: the first competition between April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings since their split in May.
The two won multiple titles and gold medals over a four-year period, but Walsh Jennings separated from Ross while disputing the AVP and refusing to sign a contract. That led to her partnering with Nicole Branagh, while Ross partnered with Lauren Fendrick.
The annual celebrity event on Lake Tahoe is the biggest party in golf.
The American Century Championship is a golf event, but it's more of a party. There are golf shots hit and scores are kept, but this is an excuse to get lots of famous people together, have a party, raise some money, and hang out at maybe the best place in the entire country to spend a mid-July weekend.
The course abuts Lake Tahoe, where fans pull boats up alongside the back nine of the Edgewood Tahoe course and just wade on up almost onto the fairway. There are DJs and different contests and all-around rowdiness.
Many of the celebs are athletes or former athletes, and the headliners this year fall into that category. Stephen Curry is probably the top draw, given the Northern California adjacent location.
Curry has made this a regular July stop, spending maybe one of the only slow stretches he has all year at the ACC. It's obviously much more fun playing in front of the crowds after winning another championship — last year, one fan memorably shouted "Kyrie would have made it" after Steph burned the edge of the cup on a putt. This year, he's got yet another ring and will certainly have the biggest galleries of the week following him around Lake Tahoe.
In the past, Steph has played with his dad, Dell Curry. But this year, he'll start the event alongside Aaron Rodgers and Joe Pavelski, a couple of other athletes who are working or close to working their way to scratch golf. Those three will tee off at 9:50 a.m. PST while Dell will play with Jason Kidd and Derek Fisher, going at 8:05 a.m. PST.
One group before Steph is the quarterback trio of Tony Romo, Alex Smith, and John Elway. Romo is the favorite this week and a scratch golfer who's 2 or 3/1 to win it. So expect the big cluster of fans, boaters, and other partygoers to cluster around that late group of tee times. They'll also be the focus of the coverage, which shows a bunch of golf shots but also a lot of things that, well, aren't golf.
NBCSN will have the coverage starting at 4 p.m. ET. SB Nation will have a live pre-show starting at 2 p.m. ET on Facebook Live. A full viewing guide for the weekend can be found here. And here's the full tee sheet for Friday at Edgewood Tahoe (all time Pacific):
Good morning. We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
The Sacramento Kings hired Scott Perry three months ago and proceeded to have their best run of player acquisition (on paper, at least) in a decade. Perry came in after working with Rob Hennigan in OKC and Orlando. The Magic didn't fare too well under their watch, but Perry led strong NBA draft work for Sacramento and helped bring in veterans who have Kings fans feeling good about the future.
The Knicks, in desperate want of competence in the front office, liked what they saw. Being the Knicks GM is Perry's dream job. As such, the Kings let him interview and he got the job. According to Woj, the Kings and Knicks are now just working out compensation.
It's too late to fix this summer for Perry: Tim Hardaway Jr. and his $71 million contract are definitely walking through that door. But as a first act, it appears the Carmelo Anthony trade talks have been paused as the new front office assesses everything. Odds are Melo still gets traded — especially if he's already decided to waive the no-trade for certain teams — but it should be deliberative and based on the best return for New York.
Patience, competence, hope: What a change for the New York Knicks!
Dave Zirin on how Dan Gilbert is promising to pay local taxpayers back for an expensive retrofit of The Q using playoff revenues through 2023. Meanwhile, LeBron James could absolutely derail that plan in 12 months' time. Hmm ....
The Spurs renounced Jonathan Simmons to make him an unrestricted free agent. It sounds like San Antonio still wants to keep him, though. It's kind of interesting that both Simmons and Tony Allen are floating out there on the market. What happened to our obsession with gritty wing defenders?
FIBA qualifying for the World Cup and Olympics will now be held during November, February, and June/July. This is terrible and could ruin global basketball's progress.
The Titans budding superstar could be the first quarterback from a college spread offense to win a Super Bowl. Retired NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz explains.
Hope. The NFL sells hope more than any other league. In the NBA, we can pencil in the Warriors and Cavs in the finals. In baseball, does anyone care if it’s not the Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox, or Cardinals? College football has Alabama, Clemson, USC, Michigan, etc.
For NFL fans, this time of year is hopeful. There are fan bases across the country getting excited for their team’s run to the Super Bowl. Get hot at the right time, and you can watch your favorite team play in Minnesota on a cold Sunday in February.
One fan base whose hopes should be strong right now is that of the Tennessee Titans. That hope rests, as it rightfully should, on the shoulders of quarterback Marcus Mariota.
As Mariota enters his third professional season, the sky is the limit. I’m an Oregon alum, so I’ve been following Marcus since he first stepped onto the field in the Oregon green and yellow (or gray, black, orange, white or whatever other color Oregon chooses on a Saturday). I knew Mariota was talented. He’s intelligent, a great leader, has a strong arm, and can move fluidly.
Still, I was skeptical he would succeed in the NFL.
One style of quarterback play wins Super Bowls — a pocket passer. There has yet to be a college spread offense quarterback who’s won a Super Bowl. Everyone will scream Russell Wilson at their screens. He played in a pro style offense at Wisconsin, and he’s a pocket passer before he’s a runner. The way Mariota is progressing, I could see him being the first quarterback from a college spread offense to win a Super Bowl.
Mariota had an up-and-down, injury-plagued rookie season. He had turnover issues and got sacked 38 times, way too often for a rookie to get comfortable. To make matters worse, there was a coaching change midway through his rookie season. Ken Whisenhunt was out; Mike Mularkey was in.
There were other changes that needed to be made to get Mariota comfortable in the pocket.
Heading into the 2016 season, Mularkey and Co. added DeMarco Murray and drafted Derrick Henry to pair in the backfield. They also drafted stud right tackle Jack Conklin to help shore up protection for Mariota.
It was announced, with some mockery, that Mularkey wanted to go old school and run the football first, pass second. Use a tight end and a fullback on the field at the same time, which is the opposite direction most teams are heading nowadays. Now a full season removed from this decision, it couldn’t have gone any better for Mariota’s development.
By forcing Mariota into an old school offensive structure, it made him learn to play quarterback from the beginning — start under center, learn the proper reads, and improve as a pocket passer.
At times, offensive staffs decide to incorporate spread offense elements to help ease a college quarterback into the NFL. This doesn’t always lead to success and more importantly, it can lead to injuries. You’d rather the quarterback get hit as little as possible.
Lastly, when you start with a run-based offense, it opens up the play action for success. Play-action passes are generally easier reads for the quarterback. The linebackers feel run, suck up, and you throw a crosser behind them. Not as complicated as spreading it out.
Without much help at wide receiver, Mariota had a much improved second season before breaking his ankle in Week 15. Mariota threw for 26 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. He had a top-10 quarterback rating, and his offense was just above league average.
Where Mariota shines, where it counts the most, is in the red zone. Lots of offenses can move between the 20s. That’s easy. The field is spread out, and there are plenty of holes to find long chunk plays. In the red zone, things happen fast.
Last season, Mariota completed 62.5 percent of his red-zone passes, good for top five in the league. He’s yet to throw a red-zone interception in his two seasons, running his tally to 33 touchdowns against zero picks. This is all without a go-to red-zone receiver.
A good front office is one that knows how to surround its franchise player with weapons. In 2016, it was Murray, Henry, and Conklin. This offseason, the Titans drafted Corey Davis fifth overall, a big-bodied wide receiver for Mariota. The Titans also drafted a receiver in the third round and a tight end in the fourth. Lastly, they brought in free agent Eric Decker, another go-to receiver in the red zone. Mariota should be excited about this offseason haul.
As well as improving the offense around Mariota, the Titans upgraded their secondary that was piss poor last season. Improved play on defense should equal better field position for the Titans offense and more points.
Everything is looking up for the Titans and Mariota. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Titans, behind their franchise quarterback, win the division and go deep into the playoffs.
Friday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the All-Star break, the Cubs acquiring Jose Quintana, and Tim Tebow’s walkoff.
Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s OK, though. We’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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I know what you're thinking. "But I miss baseball!" and "Four days without games that count is too many!" Well, you're being selfish. There. I said it. Someone has to.
Players don't get that many days off throughout the season — it was even a topic the MLB Players Association brought up during the last collective bargaining agreement negotiations. And they kick things off in February in spring training, too, so the season is longer than just April through September — and even longer still if a team makes the postseason. Now, if you're one of the many All-Stars selected in a given year, you don't even get those four days off. You're flying into whatever city is hosting the game following your afternoon game on Sunday, put through a day of media availability and whatever activities MLB has planned for you, then play in the All-Star Game and maybe even the Home Run Derby. That doesn't sound like much of a break.
Players need a longer break the most, but fans could use it, too. Sure, it seems hard on Thursday night when you need the baseball fix you're used to, but it's the (non-mathematical) halfway point of the season. Take in the first half, give yourself time to relax and reset, and go see a movie or something. Spider-Man: Homecoming was great, and I'm particularly thrilled with Sony/Marvel's decision not to make the titular character's struggle involve The Plight of The Entire World. More of that in the future, y'all, not everything needs to be apocalyptic to get your audience invested.
Movies not your thing? You probably have a video game you've been meaning to catch up on. You could catch up on Jon Bois' wonderful sci-fi sports story, 17776. Your lawn probably needs to be mowed: look at it, your neighbors are embarrassed for you. Or maybe you even have kids you should pay attention to. Am I insinuating that you're a bad parent if you would prefer baseball be back sooner instead? Hey, you asked me the question, Rhetorical Device, this is your guilt we're talking about. I
'm not saying MLB needs to take two weeks off because of the All-Star Game or anything. But it would be nice if the Derby was on a Tuesday and Monday was a real day off with the actual All-Star Game on Wednesday, and then MLB took the rest of the week — including the weekend — off. Come back Monday. Give the players and the fans and the media a few actual days off to rest and reset. We'll all be thrilled when baseball comes back, and maybe we would have even gone and done that thing we've been meaning to do by the time they return.
The history of the Marlins and the history of their Home Run Sculpture have a surprising amount in common. Grant Brisbee investigated both in Miami, and came to the conclusion that the Marlins, like their dinger statue, will be normal and beloved someday.
The Cubs traded for Jose Quintana, and the price was steep. Quintana has potential for greatness, however, and isn't just a 2017 rental, so "steep" isn't the same thing as "not worth it."
The longest game in Lexington Legends' history was called for rain after six hours and three minutes. They'll resume play with the Delmarva Shorebirds Friday night.
DeAngelo Williams stunning one-night stand at ‘Slammiversary’ got us thinking about what other NFL stars we’d like to see as wrestlers.
Transitioning from football to professional wrestling is nothing new. Former WWE and WCW superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldberg, The Rock, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan all made the leap to more lucrative careers in the squared circle. The tradition continues today; before he was a current WWE headliner, Roman Reigns was All-ACC defensive lineman Joe A’noai. Bray Wyatt was Troy center Windham Rotunda. Mojo Rawley was Maryland defensive tackle Dean Muhtadi.
Those athletes put years of training in before making their debuts in the big leagues, but their gridiron backgrounds prepared them for the physical toll of stepping in the ring.
But when Steelers tailback DeAngelo Williams took to the canvas at Impact Wrestling’s Slammiversary! last Sunday, his charisma and athleticism made him an instant standout. Teaming with another NFL alum — seven-year vet Quinn Ojinnaka, now known as Moose — he exceeded expectations with dynamic shoulder-tackles and a crisp standing moonsault.
Williams’ performance wasn’t the first time Impact had pulled a non-wrestler into a wrestling role, but likely the most impressive. What’s even more impressive? The veteran running back says he did it with only three days practice.
Thanks moose for the match and friendship and yes it was only 3 days and it was damn rough https://t.co/sOrJyMPMqv
Not every NFL veteran could transition as smoothly, but it’s clear the athleticism and toughness that comes with playing in the league can mold some great wrestlers. With that in mind, here’s our wish list for the next generation of WWE (or Impact. Or Ring of Honor. Or Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Or New Japan Pro Wrestling) superstars from the world of football.
Vince Wilfork
The current landscape of professional wrestling is sadly devoid of athletic fat guys. The WWE has shifted away from the dad strength of chubby villains like Earthquake, Kamala, or Vader and toward cut superstars who eat lean protein and do Crossfit six times a week. Wyatt is the most notable big man of his era but even at his largest is approximately half a Yokozuna.
Enter Wilfork, the nimble-footed defensive tackle who is wrapping up a potential Hall of Fame career in Houston. While at 35 he may be a bit old to turn over a new leaf, former WCW champion (and current yoga guru) Diamond Dallas Page didn’t start his in-ring career until he was the same age. Wilfork is a destructive force with sneaky speed and an intimidating figure. If he didn’t mind a little extra pain, he could be a legitimate force inside the ropes.
Plus, he could unleash one of the most devastating spears in wrestling history.
Rob Gronkowski
Gronkowski’s path to the WWE is clearer than most. He’s already partnered with the company to do a run-in at Wrestlemania, sending current champion Jinder Mahal flailing with a shoulder tackle in support of best friend Rawley.
He’s got the connections to make an immediate leap to the business, and the personality to be an engaging face before crowds get sick of him and turn him into an even more compelling heel weeks later. Between his 6’6 frame, elite athleticism, and “up for anything” attitude, the only thing dimming his wrestling stardom is his penchant for ill-timed injuries.
Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett (tag team)
A big part of professional wrestling is a superstar’s ability to cut a promo puffing him (or her-)self up while simultaneously tearing down prospective opponents. On that level, no set of teammates can compare to Sherman and Bennett. Neither one is afraid to speak his mind, like when Sherman roasted Michael Crabtree after winning the NFC Championship, or when Bennettlit up the press after Seattle’s playoff loss to the Falcons.
Get these two on a live mic running down the New Day or War Machine, and you’ve got magic. While their physical skills make them All-Pros, their limitless promo potential gives them an edge few converts could match.
Besides, Bennett’s flag-drawing sack celebration dance is awfully similar to Ravishing Rick Rude’s pre-match gyrations.
James Harrison
Harrison may be nearing 40 years old, but his litany of terrifying workout videos proves that he’s defeated Father Time in a rep-based lifting competition. He’s so jacked, he has to wear sweatshirts for his workouts so he won’t distract other people with his 24-inch pythons, brother.
A post shared by Maurkice Pouncey (@maurkicepouncey) on
Combine his freakish physical strength with his unmatched intensity, and you’ve got the makings of an in-ring monster. Harrison is just a ridiculous chest tattoo and some terrible math from being the next Scott Steiner. Holler if you hear that.
Jerry Jones
I don’t know much about wrestling, but I do know this: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was made to be a classic wrestling heel. First of all, he already has substantial experience with making wrestling fans angry, which is at least half the battle.
When AT&T Stadium hosted Wrestlemania 32, fans had a lot of reasons to be mad. They didn’t like that Roman Reigns won the whole thing, because apparently wrestling fans don’t like Roman Reigns. This happened six hours after the event started. It kicked off at 6 p.m., which means that it would have ended around midnight, so people probably would have been a little cranky, anyway. But none of that was Jerry Jones’ fault.
But it took Wrestlemania 32 ticket holders forever to actually get into the stadium, and people did see that as Jones’ fault. Plenty of people missed the beginning, and fans were chanting, “Let us in! Let us in!” outside the gates. Jones, of course, cashed in big considering that the average ticket price was over $300. That’s a pretty heel move. - Jeanna Thomas
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