A little of this and a little of that

 The NFL brought back the Hall of Fame game Thursday night, shifting it out of its traditional weekend berth.

It used to be that the game would be played on a Saturday or Sunday, with the Hall of Fame inductions held the same weekend. This year, the game was moved to a Thursday, airing on Fox for the first time. Apparently, the game will now be rotated among the league's media partners (Fox, ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, CBS, NFL Network). Fox saw an opportunity to counter-program the Olympics, which have been tanking in the ratings on NBC, since the latter network has to use same day tape from Tokyo.

For what it's worth, Pittsburgh defeated Dallas, 16-3, after the Cowboys squandered an early 3-0 lead. Both teams had past coaches going into the Hall, Dallas' Jimmy Johnson, now a Fox studio analyst, and Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher, now with CBS, which explains easily why the two ancient rivals were chosen for this year's game.

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Baseball fans are mourning the passing of former Houston Astros pitcher James Rodney (J. R.) Richard, who passed away at 71.

Richard fit the perception of the "tall Texan" at 6'7", with a blazing fastball that was difficult to hit. He struck out 300 batters in a season twice, and was part of a formidable pitching staff with Joaquin Andujar, Bob Forsch, and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. However, due to a stroke, Richard was forced to retire after the 1980 season. The Astros, then in the National League, gained their first playoff berth the following year in a strike-ravaged season, but couldn't get out of the first round, losing to the eventual World Series champion Dodgers.

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Prince Pillow may be willing to offer hugs, but he needs therapy.

File photo courtesy of Yahoo!

Embattled MyPillow CEO & founder Mike Lindell appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday night, and, in an interview with reporter Drew Griffin, claimed the Chinese did some hacking to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Lindell, who pulled all of his advertising from Fox Shmooze, including promotion for his cyber-symposium, scheduled for next week in South Dakota, because that network, still dealing with a defamation lawsuit, would no longer air his false claims of election fraud, still insists, nine months after the election, that it was stolen when it clearly was not. He offered Griffin a hug at the end of the segment.

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Speaking of Fox Shmooze, Tabloid Carlson is taking his garbage hour overseas this week. He wraps up a week of shows tonight from Hungary, which has an authoritarian leader, something that apparently the GOPers aspired to have when Citizen Pampers was in office. I'd like to lock Carlson up in a room with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, and see what happens when two bloviating morons get together.......