How about those Browns last night, eh? I'm not yet giving up hope they'll be the ones to break Cleveland's curse.
This week's NSFW ANTI-WORK #BANGERS:
- Tyrion Lannister testifies at his own trial.
- Tywin Lannister: Iron.
- Boosie explains why he left Louisiana.
REMEMBER THAT TIME URBAN WANTED A TALL WR? I'll never forget the first time I heard the name "LeBron James." I was late to the wagon for an Ohioan.
My dad, former NBA point guard Magic Johnson, showed me LeBron's 2002 Sports Illustrated cover, and pointed out he was only a couple years older than me. "They say he could go straight to the NBA," he said as if to offer me hope in my declining basketball career.
Urban Meyer, then a wide receivers coach at Notre Dame, was ahead of #teen me. He heard about LeBron three or four years prior to that and tried to lure him to Notre Dame.
It didn't go according to plan.
From espn.com:
“I walked into the school, the coach, Jim Meyer, great guy, probably in 1998 or ’99, and he said, ‘Hey, come here a minute. I want to show you this. What do you think of this kid?’” Meyer said. “I started watching the video, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ He was six-foot-whatever, obviously real big back then, too.
“He asked me what I thought and I said, ‘I want to offer him right now. Who is he?’”
[...]
“The bell had just rung for class, and I stick my head out the window and you can tell who he is because he’s a foot taller than everybody else walking down the hallway,” Meyer said. “He said, ‘Hello, coach, I’m LeBron James.’ I said, ‘I’d love to have you. Why don’t you come up to Notre Dame because we’d love to talk with you?’ He said, ‘I appreciate that.’
“Then we sat back down and the coach told me, ‘He’s done. You don’t know who that is?’ I said no. ‘That’s the next Michael Jordan.’ I’m just like, come on.”
Here's my question: Do y'all think a 38-year-old LeBron could still dominate a college football game? I say yes, and that's why Meyer should get out ahead of LeBron's next recruitment and offer him a scholarship as soon as the NBA Finals conclude.
He may not have the straight-line speed he would've had earlier in his career, but I'm willing to bet he could still Moss the shit out of some college students.
GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, IS THAT ST. JOHN'S MUSIC? Ohio State, for some reason, is moving along with plans to demolish St. John Arena and replace it with a multi-sport complex that looks like this:
Anytime you can demolish a historic arena for something that looks like a business front for money laundering, you gotta do it!
But alas! It appears the financing numbers aren't lining up to projections.
From bizjournals.com:
Two major pieces of Ohio State University’s new athletics corridor are each $10 million over budget, giving administrators pause before approving construction.
The Covelli Multi-Sport Arena, which would house teams playing at St. John Arena, and the Student-Athlete Development Center are budgeted at $30 million and $32 million, respectively, and each are seeing large cost overruns, Ohio State officials said Thursday at committee meetings ahead of Friday’s board of trustees meeting.
“Almost as soon as we started the design process it became clear (both facilities were) budget-challenged,” Lynn Readey, associate vice president of facilities operations and development, told members of OSU’s finance committee. “And I would say significantly budget-challenged.”
Here's my play: Take that $29,900,000 and invest it into St. John Arena renovations. Then take $100,000 and send it to me in unmarked United States currency. That is my fee for saving the university I know and love $10 million.
MAKES YOU THINK. Ask any Ohio State fan, "What's the Buckeyes' must-win game this year?" And those with functioning cerebral cortexes will say, "Michigan."
But what if it were actually the Wolverines' bigger, more intimidating brother?
From espn.com:
You could certainly argue that Michigan is the must-win contest for the Buckeyes, seeing as The Game is always the most important one on the schedule, and that the Wolverines look like real Big Ten title contenders for the first time in about a decade. There definitely could be major division championship and College Football Playoff implications at stake for that Nov. 26 showdown in Columbus.
But the Michigan-Ohio State clash probably won't mean nearly as much to the Scarlet and Gray if the Buckeyes can't win at Michigan State the week before. In truth, the Spartans have been the real, and only, league obstacle in Meyer's path. The Buckeyes have only lost two Big Ten games, including championship games, in 33 tries under Meyer. Michigan State owns both of those wins, including last year's upset in the Horseshoe.
Home field has oddly not meant a lot in this series of late, so Ohio State shouldn't be at a major disadvantage going on the road if that history holds. But the Buckeyes will have to deal with what should be another tenacious Mark Dantonio defense, and if the Spartans come into the game feeling disrespected or underappreciated, look out.
Ohio State could enter the last week of the season at 0-11, and beating the blood out of Michigan would mean as much as it would if Ohio State were 11-0. But I forgive Brian Bennett, the author, because he didn't grow up cultured by a century-old sports vendetta.
Still, he makes a point. Michigan State is 2-2 against Urban Meyer, a mark Michigan fans will one day sacrifice their firstborns in an effort for Jim Harbaugh, their last hope, to achieve a similar mark. (Spoiler: He won't.)
SHHHHH. There was a time, not long ago, when Michael Thomas was a talented but petulant and mistake-prone wide receiver stuck in Urban Meyer's doghouse.
Those days are gone. Thomas is down in New Orleans now, and the Saints' first second-round selection is already making an impression on All-Pro QB Drew Brees.
From theneworleansadvocate.com:
Brees decided to signal anyway. Instead of having Thomas run about 18 yards down on an out route, he wanted Thomas to continue going down the field after making a fake to sell the original route.
Thomas picked up on it. He sold the fake and got Delvin Breaux to bite just enough to get behind the prevent defense and pull in the pass for a long first down. He executed it exactly the way Brees imagined it.
[...]
“That makes you feel good, too, we’re all on the same page even though we haven’t talked about it yet,” Brees said. “You know this offense; you have a feel for the game. I like it when you see that stuff out of young guys.”
My fantasy team is going to be comprised entirely of Ohio State rookies this year, which means I'm a championship lock.
TROPICAL STORM BOSA HEADS NORTH. Columbus gains a new resident today.
Last day in Soflo going to the beach, then packing
— Nick Bosa (@nbsmallerbear) June 2, 2016
No need to sweat, Nick. You'll be shocked at the number of luxurious beaches at your disposal in Columbus. Just wait until you get a load of the world-famous Zoombezi Bay.
THOSE WMDs. A short-order murder... Prince died of a fentanyl overdose... Gigantic marble map of New England needs a new home... Lost superstitions of the early 20th-century United States... Analog vs. digital: A look at the same photos taken 15 years apart.
