What a week in sports. There’s been a ton going on with a huge World Series Game 7 between the Cubs and Indians, the first game between Durant’s Warriors and Westbrook’s Thunder, MACtion and weeknight football, boring NFL games on Monday and Thursday, and now we’re amped up for the big Alabama / LSU game this weekend.
If you missed it, we knocked out another podcast last night (which you can download on iTunes, or find it here), so make sure you grab that, and also check out our picks for the weekend before making your bets.
1. Tiger Woods has a new girlfriend
Meet Kristin Smith, the new girlfriend of Tiger Woods. She’s a little bit older than what we figured he’d have ended up with (she’s in her mid 30s), but that’s ok. She’s blonde and she fits exactly the kinda girls that Tiger has been linked with in relationships in the past.
Good to see him back out doin his thing. Maybe she’ll be good enough to him to get us another Sunday charge at a major.
2. Jalen Hurd being recruited by Memphis?
Clay Travis, from Outkick the Coverage, received an e-mail from a frat guy from the University of Tennessee which included a voicemail from Chip Long, offensive coordinator for the Memphis Tigers. In the voicemail, Long is spitting a recruiting pitch at Hurd, stating that Memphis would immediately jump to an I-Formation based offense to best suit Hurd, if he would come to Memphis.
Now, I don’t think they would actually do that. Hurd would be the best, most highly-ranked player to ever play for the Tigers, but you don’t just flip an entire offense, that a coaching staff knows well, based on whether one kid comes to your school.
Memphis has commented and said Long did not call Hurd, and that this is not real. So I’m not sure who to believe here. But I’ll say this… cheers to Memphis for at least taking a shot. Shooters shoot.
3. Vandy player gets 17 years for rape
Not many people have even thought about the Vanderbilt rape case from years ago, when James Franklin was still coaching there, but the sentencing for former Vandy tight end, Brandon Vandenburg, came down today and he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for 5 counts of aggravated rape.
There was a ton of stuff that went into this trial, and they tried to tie in everybody they possibly could to distribute the blame, but the bottom line is that this kid raped an unconscious young woman in a dorm room and sent pics of her to several of his friends. This is dispicable, and I’m sure the woman finally has at least a little bit of closure.
4. Alabama / LSU winner has determined last 8 elections
Since 1984, every 4 years, an Alabama win means a Democrat will win the White House, while an LSU win means a Republican will win. Here’s what we’re talking about:
1984: LSU 16, Alabama 14. Ronald Reagan (R) defeats Walter Mondale (D).
1988: LSU 19, Alabama 18. George H.W. Bush (R) defeats Michael Dukakis (D).
1992: Alabama 31, LSU 11. Bill Clinton (D) defeats George H.W. Bush (R).
1996: Alabama 26, LSU 0. Clinton (D) defeats Bob Dole (R).
2000: LSU 30, Alabama 28. George W. Bush (R) defeats Al Gore (D).
2004: LSU 26, Alabama 10. George W. Bush (R) defeats John Kerry (D).
2008: Alabama 27, LSU 21. Barack Obama (D) defeats John McCain (R).
Now, eventually, this won’t hold form, because crazy things happen… like the Cubs winning the World Series. But it’s pretty interesting to look at. 1980 was the last time this did not happen. 32 years is a long time.
5. Bill Simmons “Any Given Wednesday” is cancelled
And it’s surprising it took this long to announce it. I understand they wanted to give it the entire season before they cancel, especially because they gave Simmons so much money, but it’s proven that twitter followers do not necessarily equal to TV Viewers. This is the viewership totals for the show, thanks to SportsTVRatings.com:
That’s pretty awful. For people doing the math, that’s an average of 200k viewers per show. The lead-in movies did significantly better. The show became a joke within the first few weeks because of a profanity laced interview with Ben Affleck, then, on another show, Simmons brought on Chris Bosh and since the show was not recorded live, they discussed Dewayne Wade’s role on the Miami Heat literally hours after Wade announced he was signing with the Chicago Bulls. The show hit a low on Oct 26th with only 82k people watching (went up against Game 2 of the World Series – which is strange because Game 7 didn’t kill it, with 145k watching that night).
Either way, it was a fun show, but the numbers were not there. Especially when they know they can run another bullshit rerun movie and draw well over 300k viewers. At least we’ve still got the Ringer podcasts.
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