Folks, when you're grilling meat, drinking Zimas, and debating if a hotdog is a sandwich with your family today, try to remember the heroes the Fourth of July is really about: The bosses making employees work while they vacation.
ICYMI:
- Final day Opening observations from Andrew Lind, whom you should follow on Twitter.
- Jeremy Ruckert, the No. 2 tight end of the 2018 class and star of The Opening, lists Ohio State in his final four with a decision coming in weeks.
- Nobody parties on the Fourth like Joey Galloway.
- The Buckeyes lengthy history of not playing on Saturday.
- The best coaches in Ohio State history.
- Former Basketbuck commit Darius Bazley will attend Syracuse.
- Help put a life-size statue of Woody Hayes in his hometown of Newcomerstown, Ohio.
Word of the Day: Chauvinism.
JONES ON THE ROPES. The Buffalo Bills cleaned house this offseason, and the coach nor general manager came attached to Cardale Jones.
The fourth-round pick reportedly underperformed during summer minicamp. To make matters worse, he fell behind former Tennessee and Pittsburgh quarterback Nathan Peterman, whom the Bills selected in the fifth round back in April.
From billswire.usatoday.com:
Unfortunately, Jones’ flaws – accuracy, a tendency to stare down receivers and having too much trust in his arm strength – showed up during the preseason last year, as he completed just 49.2-percent of his 59 pass attempts.
Buffalo cleaned house following the 2016 season, bringing in an entirely new front office and coaching staff that have no ties to Jones. Making matters worse for the 24-year old is the fact that the Bills signed T.J. Yates, a 30-year old veteran who played under offensive coordinator Rick Dennison for four years as a backup with the Houston Texans.
Jones now faces an uphill battle to make the opening day roster.
Perhaps the Bills are unworthy of the Iron King's services. It's not like they've rolled quarterbacks off the assembly line since Jim Kelly retired. An over-the-hill Drew Bledsoe is the best quarterback they've had since then.
If they do release Jones, multiple NFL teams will want him because they'll think they have the staff that can fix his crudities.
CLOUD STILL LOOMS OVER ZEKE. The NFL has been investigating domestic abuse allegations against Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott for almost a year now.
Owner Jerry Jones said in March the NFL had found "nothing," on Elliott. But ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter says the league could still punish him.
From Schefter's appearance with John Hansen and Adam Caplan on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio, as transcribed by phillyvoice.com:
"I would just say this. It is definitely a factor, and if I were drafting today, I would be hesitant to (draft him). But this is a situation that has gone back and forth so many times. I’ve spoken to some people within the league who, during the course of the offseason, got a sense that some form of discipline could happen.
"And then I spoke to somebody last week and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think anything is going to happen here.’ And then a decision that many people thought would come before the start of the the July 4th weekend on Friday when the NFL usually makes a lot of decisions, hands down some news, I was told that was being pushed back.
"Now why is that being pushed back? Was it being pushed back, actually? Maybe it wasn’t even. But I was told there wasn’t going to be an answer here for a little while, that there was more information. There have been more meetings between either Zeke’s people and the league, or the NFLPA and the league, or whoever. It’s just been an ongoing issue that has had no conclusion. And so, if you’re drafting today, it’s hard to say, ‘Well, nothing’s going to happen there.’
"Nothing may well happen there, but something could happen there. We just don’t know right now. It’s just sort of out there."
In the meantime, Elliott says he's changed and now lays low because he "can't fart without it being news." (I've typed and read a lot of articles about Elliott over the years and don't recall one about him farting.)
WHAT IS ALREADY WISCONSIN CANNOT DIE. The phrase "Wisconsin football" conjures a stereotype in every non-Wisconsin fan's mind. But the thing is, the stereotype is 100% true.
Wisconsin always has a former three-star quarterback with the mobility of a corpse, good running backs, a sizable if not latterly quick offensive line, and a somewhat dependable defense.
Apparently this year could be one for the ages.
From Bill Connelly of sbnation.com:
This should be one of the most Wisconsin Wisconsin teams of all time, and I’m not talking about the fact that UW grads hold the head coaching job and both coordinator positions. Wisconsin has an interesting stable of running backs, a great tight end, a huge offensive line, a seasoned defense (replete with a couple of transfers from smaller schools), and a size advantage in nearly every matchup.
Leonhard’s inexperience does concern me, but that might mean more in 2018, when the defense isn’t loaded with seniors.
For now, it’s easy to assume UW will maintain at least a top-20 defense and improve again on offense.
With a schedule much lighter than last year’s — not only is Michigan the only projected top-10 team on the slate, the Wolverines are the only projected top-35 team — Wisconsin is your easy Big Ten West favorite. Road trips to Nebraska and Minnesota loom, but S&P+ projects the Badgers as the favorite in every single game and gives them a less than 71 percent chance in just one game. That’s a good recipe for a trip to the conference title game.
Here's a juicy scheduling #tidbit: Michigan plays in Madison the week before Ohio State rolls into Ann Arbor.
There's a 0.5% chance it happens, but it won't stop me from praying TV execs strong-arm the Big Ten into putting Wisconsin vs. Michigan under the lights of Camp Randall. Hell, I'd settle for a 3:30 kickoff.
A couple extra hours to prepare could be the decisive edge to send Jim Harbaugh spiraling into an 0-3 vs. Urban Meyer nuclear winter.
HOROWITZ OUT. FOX Sports whacked its digital writing department last week in order to "pivot to video" as we say in the biz. This week, FOX Sports whacked its top administrator under a cloud of sexual harassment probe.
From The Los Angeles Times:
Amid a probe of sexual harassment at Fox Sports, the company announced Monday that it had fired its controversial head of sports programming, Jamie Horowitz.
Horowitz’s dismissal came about a week after Fox began investigating allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace in its sports division. The company hired a law firm, which interviewed women at Fox Sports about Horowitz’s behavior, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss it.
Several women, including prominent on-air personalities, have already been interviewed about their treatment at Fox Sports, according to two people who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.
Sounds like a clown over there. Jim Delany should make FOX pay the Big Ten in cash for the remainder of the contract.
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