Dawgs By Nature
This was a wild week, from the Myles Garrett trade to a Hall of Famer passing away to Nick Saban appearing before a Senate subcommittee. NASCAR great Ned Jarrett also passed away.
Here are things on my mind:
1. Okay. The Myles Garrett trade has to be front and center, right? Lordy. What I found odd is how two of the draft picks the Browns received are for two to three years down the road. How did they get agreed upon? Why did Andrew Berry say okay to that? I see the benefit for the Los Angeles Rams in order to keep as much talent on their roster as possible. Cleveland is the poster child for losing high-round draft picks for years and ending up in the basement while the receiving team becomes their division winners. Lose your best player and then don’t get the residual until 2028 and then 2029?
2. Great time to be a sports fan, with watching the Stanley Cup Finals as well as the NBA Finals. I have always wondered why the pro basketball final series doesn’t have a cool name of its own. Baseball has the “World Series,” while the NFL uses the “Super Bowl,” and hockey has the “Stanley Cup.” Soccer has the “World Cup,” which begins next month. Pro basketball? The “NBA Finals.” That’s it? And notice none of the other leagues insert their actual league entity into the championship moniker except for the NBA. How about “The Crown of the Court Series” or “Lord of the Rim”? Or maybe a nod to the sport’s inventor, “The Naismith Championship Classic.”
3. I did a full profile on pass rusher Jared Verse once he became the player involved in the Myles trade. What stood out to me was his track background. In high school, he was already 6’-4” and weighed 254 pounds. Most big guys who participate in track end up tossing the javelin, discus, and/or the shot put. Verse did none of that. Instead, he ran the 4×100 relays, the 4×400 relays, the 100-meter, and 200-meter runs. Each of these events is a sprint event. As a senior, he came in third in the state in the 100 and 200 runs, and his team won the state championship in the 4×400-meter relays.
4. The Chicago Bears lost the vote in the Illinois spring legislative session to get them a ton of money to help build a new stadium. The Senate passed the “megaprojects” bill, but it died in the House. Then a new bill was proposed that the Senate again passed 37-17, but the House adjourned and never took a vote. Meanwhile, neighboring Hammond, Indiana, is offering up to $1 billion in tax incentives. The Bears own hundreds of acres in nearby Arlington Heights, just 36 minutes from downtown Chicago. Hammond is the same distance further south and a stone’s throw across the state line.
The Bears have maintained that they cannot build a stadium without property tax certainty, which Indiana passed...
