If you’ve read our Aaron Rodgers coverage over the years, you know that we waffle between exasperation at his antics and full-hearted support of him in his entirety, and that the inflection points between these poles generally coincide with Rodgers posting on Instagram. And so, while I get it, while I understand that people who have never liked Aaron Rodgers (because he has beaten them) roll their eyes at this stuff, this is the kind of thing that makes me think of a young backup quarterback doing the belt celebration after big plays in practice:
Rodgers’s ability to do this—to put out some heartfelt stuff (here’s another good one) and connect emotionally to fans at significant moments—is a big asset for him. It can pull fans like me from making ayahuasca jokes to sitting solemnly and hoping he comes back and has a great 2024. (It definitely helps that the Packers won so big on Sunday, I am big enough to admit that.) There’s an art to this, and in something that sentimental–Instagram–post Aaron doesn’t care about but Ayahuasca–Aaron really cares about, I think that makes Aaron Rodgers a bit of an artist, something I only say because if you think of Rodgers more as an artist and less as a football player, the differences between him and Brady and Manning—frustrating as they can be for football fans—add up.
Dartmouth Wants to Form a Union
Why is it always the privileged kids these days who think unions are cool?
Dartmouth’s men’s basketball players—no managers, notably—filed whatever you need to file with the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to form a union. Could this kill college sports? Doubtful. But if FOX gets away with that alternative NIT, we can only hope.
I hope we find out soon that this is an extra credit project. What would be more Ivy League than trying to form a union in an effort to raise your GPA and crowd out some state school sap from a high-paying finance job after school?
What Is Jay Norvell Thinking?
A friend who isn’t not connected in the college football world suggested to me last season that college football coaches are very conscious of the spread. His reasoning with this was that a significant part of a college football coach’s job is courting his alumni base, and that with sports betting possibly peaking in its popularity, these alums want to bet on their team and win more than ever before. If this is true, I would imagine that Deion Sanders would like to cover the spread this weekend against Colorado State.
Jay Norvell, coach of the Colorado State Rams and a man who has never won more than eight games in a season (his 2020 Nevada team did go 7–2), decided to pick a fight with Coach Prime in the press this week, criticizing him for wearing sunglasses during press conferences. Sanders responded by saying that, just as last week’s game was personal, this week’s game is now personal. Congratulations, Jay. You just earned yourself a personal football game.
Let’s imagine for a second if Mike McCarthy said a game was personal.
Ok, let’s move on now. That was fun.
The thing about Deion Sanders, head football coach at Colorado, is that his team is a lot more talented than Jay Norvell’s, head football coach at Colorado State. The thing about Jay Norvell, head football coach at Colorado State, is that his team is a lot less talented than Deion Sanders’s, head football coach at Colorado. Maybe Norvell has a good thing cooking, but his team went 3–9 last year and lost their only game so far this season by 26, at home, against Washington State. Washington State’s a good football team, but it’s unclear if they’re better than Colorado, and Washington State was presumably using the game to work on some things. Colorado doesn’t think it needs to work on things. Colorado thinks it needs to kick Jay Norvell’s ass for daring to blaspheme against Coach Prime.
ESPN is going to make it sound like this Colorado State team is respectable on Saturday, and to be fair, Colorado State could conceivably make a bowl game. But the Mountain West is down right now, and Colorado State is one of its worse teams, and ESPN is only in Boulder in the first place because the Week 3 slate kind of stinks and it’s possible Colorado will get smoked by Oregon next weekend and this will all stop being so much fun by the time USC comes to town and another Gameday opportunity presents itself. Colorado State was already walking into a butt-kicking. Now, their coach is talking about sunglasses and the line’s already moved one point towards the Buffs.
I Hope Stetson Bennett Did Something Dumb and Funny
Is it ok to talk about Stetson Bennett? The Rams placed him on the reserve/NFI list, and I thought the I there stood for ‘injury’ but a lot of people have it standing for ‘illness,’ which makes me think maybe there’s an NFI list for non-football injuries and then there’s a reserve/NFI list where the I does stand for ‘illness.’ Either way, Stetson Bennett isn’t with the Rams right now, and Sean McVay made it sound bad: “Out of respect for him and the situation, I’m going to leave all of those specifics and particulars in-house.”
Ideally, the I stands for ‘injury’ and Stetson Bennett broke his wrist trying to jump a parking garage on a dirt bike. That would be funny and awesome. The guy went to college for six years and managed to not get a degree. You’re telling me it wouldn’t add to his legacy if he accidentally blew a toe off shooting bottle rockets at a raccoon?
Hopefully, whatever’s going on, Bennett’s ok. Hopefully, it’s dumb and funny. That’d be a lot better than this being something where, I don’t know, Bennett had a problem and kept making bad choices and the Kirby Smart football program that’s been so good at protecting its young people and their lives failed to step in and help their two-time national championship-winning quarterback.
Strategy or Shit-Talking?
Speaking of things, I got Zach Johnson confused with Dustin Johnson for a minute, and when I read the headline that Zach Johnson wasn’t going to let Netflix cameras into parts of the U.S. locker room at the Ryder Cup, I assumed the guys were going to be getting sauced. Instead, it’s Zach Johnson, and so I wonder if this is about strategy discussions or if the U.S. is going to be talking shit about their European buddies on the PGA Tour. There’s no way to know. There will be no cameras there to find out.
Ons Jabeur Swagger Watch
We’ve found a favorite non-American tennis player, and it’s Ons Jabeur. She’s got grit. Plays with heart. Very human. Also hasn’t won a major yet, so this is a great time to jump on the bandwagon. Jabeur lost yesterday to unheralded (27th-ranked in the world, so maybe only unheralded to me) Anastasia Potapova at the Cymbiotika San Diego Open, the upset coming just weeks after Jabeur crashed out of the US Open while playing through flulike symptoms.
Our response? We’re initiating Swagger Watch for Ons Jabeur. Need her back at Full Swagger by the time these folks all fly down to Melbourne.
The Van Gisbergen Program
Trackhouse Racing is setting up a special development program for Shane van Gisbergen, the New Zealand Supercars racer who won NASCAR’s Chicago street race in July. They’re going to have him race in all three major NASCAR series—Cup, Xfinity, and trucks—and also “some other lower-level races.”
This sounds so fun.
American motorsports is a massive web of amateur and semipro and professional racing encompassing go-karts and dirt tracks and all sorts of categories that blow my mind in all sorts of off–the–beaten–path locales. Forget the driver development angle: Trackhouse is giving van Gisbergen a dope introduction to the United States of America. I hope this turns into a thing. “The Van Gisbergen Program” is fun to say. Sounds like it would also be fun to experience. Make it part of the immigration process whenever that gets reformed.
The Pitch Was a Strike
Joe Kelly returned to the mound last night, and the pitch was a strike, ok? The pitch was a strike, Joe Kelly struck Trent Grisham out, there’s nothing else to talk about. Joe Kelly struck out three of the six batters he faced, walked one, and drew soft contact from the other two. Broke a bat. Those are expensive! Joe Kelly inflicted financial damage on the San Diego Padres.
No, our guy didn’t have his best stuff, but that’s a pretty good outing right there for a man who doesn’t have his best stuff. The pitch was a strike. THE PITCH WAS A STRIKE.
