My beautiful wife and I have now officially been married for two years – our anniversary is today.
I am very unsure how exactly she has put up with me for even this long, but I sincerely hope she continues to do so for many more years.
Eat Arby's.
Word of the Day: Jocular.
PROVE 'EM WRONG. I am a known and well-documented idiot, but I've always thought that E.J. Liddell was an absolute slam dunk of an NBA prospect (pun not really intended, but I'll take it).
He's probably not going to be Rookie of the Year and might not ever make an All-Star team or anything like that, but I think he's going to make an NBA roster and play real, meaningful minutes in the league for a very long time.
Apparently, actual NBA teams weren't quite as sold as I am – but Liddell's got no worries.
He had hoped to go higher in the draft. He could feel the collective anxiety growing in the room as 40 other players were selected ahead of him. But now, Liddell has a team and a clear focus on what comes next.
“I’ve been proving people wrong my whole, entire life so this isn’t anything new,” Liddell said, still wiping tears from his eyes a few moments later. “I’m gonna keep doing that until the day I’m gone. I’m happy they took a chance on me and I appreciate them for the opportunity.”
...
Later, he was asked: what emotions were those that came out? Relief, excitement, thoughts of family?
All of that,” he said. “Everything bottled up, man. I waited a long time for that. I heard my name called. I went back to school this past year to hear my name called. I’m just grateful for it.”
And that very simple and confident response is precisely why I'm not worried about him. In 10 years, he's going to be the steal of the draft. He'll make sure of that.
GET A LINE THAT DOES BOTH. This is absolutely stating the obvious here, but in order for your offensive line to be properly considered *good,* it really needs to be dominant in both the run and passing game.
Turns out, Ohio State was one of the few that checked both boxes last year.
2021 Offensive Lines that finished in the Top 20 of both my Run Push AND Sack Rate stats
— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) June 26, 2022
Baylor
BYU
Florida
Georgia
Michigan
Ohio State
Oregon State
Utah
Without actually looking, I'd almost guarantee that the Buckeyes were also the only team on this list that fired and replaced their offensive line coach following the season. The standard at Ohio State is a bitch to uphold, but everyone knows what they sign up for.
THREE-PEAT. Carmen's Crew may not be playing in the TBT this year, but David Lighty is claiming some hardware this summer, helping lead his team to the French League title for the third time in a row.
And of course, he's holding that trophy front and center.
#LDLCASVEL #FinalesBetclicELITE pic.twitter.com/0bVpTvGEN9
— LDLC ASVEL (@LDLCASVEL) June 25, 2022
Lighty's squad has now won the league in 2019, 2021, and 2022 – a pandemic-separated three-peat. And he's been a key piece the entire time, winning the Finals MVP in 2019 and leading the team in minutes played during this season's finals.
There used to be this weird stigma that existed with players going to play overseas, and I think we're finally killing that – which is good because there's absolutely nothing wrong with balling out and being a star in France and Italy for a decade while comfortably making six figures a year.
Actually, that kind of sounds like the dream. I'm not sure why anyone was ever knocking that.
PAST MEETS FUTURE. Looks like we had a little mixing of the generations this weekend as Buckeye offensive line commit Luke Montgomery got to hand out with Buckeye legend Cardale Jones.
Great to meet Buckeye Legend Cardale Jones today. I appreciate the words of wisdom on his experiences at THE Ohio State University @CJ1two pic.twitter.com/X7vPJGjV0J
— Luke Montgomery (@lukeMonty8) June 26, 2022
There was certainly a time when everyone involved would have shit their pants at the thought of Cardale Jones as a mentor and role model, but I think we've all kinda turned the corner on that – much to his credit.
These days, that's probably exactly who you want as a role model.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Grow As We Go" by Ben Platt.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A Swiss 'zero-star hotel' offers sleepless nights to ponder the world's crises... I left my husband for the most hated man in America... A gold miner finds a mummified baby woolly mammoth in the Klondike... Turns out, people are drawn to others who smell like them... The world’s biggest bacterium is visible to the naked eye... A record-breaking python is discovered in the Florida Everglades...
