The NFL is mourning the passing of former Raiders QB Daryle Lamonica, who passed away at 80.
Nicknamed "The Mad Bomber" for his propensity for long passes, Lamonica took the Raiders to Super Bowl II, where they lost to Green Bay. He remained the starter for the Raiders until being succeeded by Ken Stabler in 1973. After the AFL-NFL merger, Lamonica was named to the Pro Bowl following the 1970 & 1972 seasons.
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Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn't make any friends in Detroit on Thursday.
With Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera closing in on 3,000 hits, and having taken an o-fer for the day, Boone opted to intentionally walk Cabrera in the 8th inning, with Detroit already up, 3-0. The partisans at Comerica Park booed, of course, but Boone was trying to rally his team to come from behind in the visiting 9th, which didn't happen. Cabrera will hit the milestone, perhaps as early as tonight, but you can understand Boone not wanting to have one of his pitchers be the one to give up #3000.
Worse for the Yanks, former Yankee Michael Pineda picked up the win, outdueling Jordan Montgomery.
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During its first run (1983-5), the USFL never had a primetime game.
They've already had a couple this season, and week 2 starts with a primetime game tonight on USA Network. Doubleheaders will air Saturday on Fox and Sunday on NBC. The challenge for the revived league, of course, is to finish the season, something the Alliance of American Football (2019) and XFL 2.0 (2020) couldn't do.
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Even though he lives in Los Angeles these days, Mike "The Miz" Mizanin is and always has been a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan, and will stand for all of the city's sports teams, as demonstrated when he debated Screamin' A. Cosell (Stephen A. Smith) on First Take a few years ago.
Next week, Mizanin will live every NFL fan's dream, and be at the NFL Draft, as a guest of the league. He won't be the only WWE personality there, though. Titus O'Neil (Thad Bullard), who spends more time these days shilling for the Fuccillo Auto Group and doing charity work in his native Florida, will represent for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Maybe that'll start a trend. Despite playing the same arrogant, self-serving villain for most of his 16 years on the active roster, Mizanin is also a goodwill ambassador for WWE, as is O'Neil. We can think of a few other WWE-NFL ties:
Tennessee Titans: Jerry Lawler.
Cincinnati Bengals: Alexa Bliss (who's from Columbus).
New England Patriots: Sasha Banks.
Carolina Panthers: R-Truth (Ron Killings) or Charlotte Flair.
Atlanta Falcons: Ex-Falcon Bill Goldberg or Roman Reigns (Joe Anoia was a Georgia Tech grad).
Houston Texans: Hometown legend Booker T (Booker Huffman).
San Francisco 49ers: Jey & Jimmy Uso.
Miami Dolphins: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (of course).
AEW has a more dedicated NFL wrestler/fan connection. Dr. Britt Baker DMD is from Pittsburgh, Jon Moxley and Brian Pillman Jr. represent Cincinnati (Pillman's father, pro wrestler Brian Pillman, also played for the Bengals), and Max Caster - one-half of the AEW tag team The Acclaimed - is the son of former NFL star John Caster.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know about Caster's connection, Chuck. Y'think maybe WWE was making a pre-emptive strike?
ReplyDeleteLet me add some more:
Bryan Danielson could easily rep for Seattle.
Trust Fund Max (MJF) would be for the Giants instead of the Jests.
Jericho's originally from LI himself. We can stick him with the Jests.
CM Punk--Bears, obviously.