So with the Toronto Blue Jays in town, naturally NESN kept showing the Blow Jays manager John Gibbons on TV and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It finally dawned on me. John Gibbons is Dr. Evil’s henchman from Austin Powers, No. 2. This is the same goddamn guy, no doubt.
Finally had enough of trying to take over the world so he settled for Toronto.
Wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t also post the “Who does No. 2 work for?” scene, right?
Cowboys will use caution with Jaylon Smith in his return
So for those who don’t know Dallas Cowboys and former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith suffered a DEVASTATING knee injury to end his college career. Pretty much tore everything and anything in his knee and suffered nerve damage to boot. What makes it worse is he was doing the “team first” thing and strapping on the gold dome one last time to help his team win a bowl game rather than sitting it out and prepping for the draft.
After a year and a half or so of rehab Smith can now run, cut etc. and wants to try and play and it looks like the Cowboys are willing to give it a shot as well. His knee seems to be able to do and take enough. The kicker, no pun intended, is that the goddam nerve in his knee hasn’t recovered, or regenerated to be more accurate, fully if at at all. Think about that. My rotator cuff was bothering me so I took a week off from the gym. Jaylon Smith doesn’t have a fully functioning nerve and thus doesn’t have full feeling or activity in his knee and he’s gonna try and play pro football. He even suffers from a condition called drop foot. What’s that? Well, dangle your leg off something but keep your foot at a 90 degree angle, such as if you were to jump down you’d land flat on your flat feet. Ya he can’t that, foot just falls all flimsy. Every step he takes his foot just drops and flops. Absolutel debacle. It can be somewhat mitigated by a verrrry special kind of brace but even then it’s barely putting a band-aid on the problem.
It sucks for a kid that talented and hard working to have it all taken away like that, but it is as inspiring as all holy hell to see him try and make his dreams come true anyway. Here’s to hoping he can get it done.
So this is awesome, As reported by mmmad.com local guy Calvin Kattar has stepped in for Doo Ho Choi to face Andre Fili in a couple weeks at UFC 214. He has not lost in 7 years, although he took off 3 years beginning in 2013 before returning last fall to win twice in 2 months.
Kattar is 29 and splits his time between Carlos Neto’s BJJ school and the revered Team Sityodtong, both in Somerville. Full story below.
Calvin Kattar replaces Doo Ho Choi, fights Andre Fili at UFC 214
ESPN – The Golden State Warriors are bringing the personal seat license to the NBA. Officials with the defending NBA champions acknowledged Wednesday that to get season tickets at the team’s new privately financed $1 billion Chase Center, which is slated to open in 2019, fans will have to pay a fee for the right to buy those tickets…The Warriors would return the money the fan paid for the right to buy tickets after 30 years. That essentially means the personal seat license, which will be called a “membership,” is acting as an interest-free, tax-free loan to the team for three decades. Fans can transfer or give back the license before the 30 years are up, so they aren’t required to commit to the full term, but they won’t get their money back until Year 30.
What. A. Scam. A Personal Seat License? Look as a business this is brilliant. Especially if people are dumb enough (and they are) to pay for this. Oh you want the right to buy tickets in this stadium we just built? Well thats gonna cost you. You need to pay me money for the right to pay me money. Genius.
But as a fan? Fuckkkk that. Again, Im sure the Golden State Warriors will have zero problem selling these in Silicon Valley, but I’m still pissed if I’m a fan. I essentially have to write you a check that you hold onto for 30 YEARS just so I can pay you thousands more per year for season tickets. This is like Ticketmaster on steroids. I despise Ticketmaster for this very reason. They’ve charged bullshit “convenience fees” and “maintenance fees” for years. $15 so I can print out one ticket at home? Kick rocks, Ticketmaster. I’ve been calling shenanigans on them for a decade. And now an NBA franchise is going to take this model and just RUN with it.
But, this is what happens when you have a $400M bill looming. The Warriors, by the grace of tax cap god, were able to fit Kevin Durant under the cap along with Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, plus ya know the other 10 guys to fill a roster. Except what comes with massive amounts of payroll and multiple max contracts? Luxury taxes. What happens when you consistently go over the luxury tax? The League RAPES you on more taxes.
I saw a graphic on ESPN where Brian Windhorst and the crew were talking about how in 3 or so years, with all of the luxury taxes, if the Warriors keep their team together as currently constructed, their overall payroll would be $400 MILLION DOLLARS. Even for billionaire professional sports franchise owners, thats a tough pill to swallow.
So, as usual, might as well pass the buck along to the fan so he’s the one holding the bag. For 30 fucking years.
In this very special edition of The 300s Podcast we breakdown all the Houses, characters, and plot lines of Westeros as Game of Thrones is FINALLY back.
Shane McMahon. Shane O Mac. Young Simba. The spoiled brat you couldn’t hate if you tried growing up because you knew he was as cool as he acted. The prodigal son of the WWF (I refuse to call it WWE) who despite not being a regular competitor would show up once a year to sacrifice life and limb to put on a hell of a show, getting ragolled and jumping off of shit through tables, trash cans, etc. And now this.
Shane O’ and his pilot had to crash land their helicopter in the Atlantic and get rescued when the helicopter by all accounts fully shit the bed mid-flight. And he’s out here talking and tweeting about like he survived a routing fender bender, unbelievable.
On second thought, he probably just got bored and thought he could land an elbow drop on a shark.
PFT – Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler spent some of his final hours before the start of training camp in police custody. Fowler was arrested on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Florida and booked into jail shortly after 9 p.m. Per a report from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Fowler was charged with simple battery and criminal mischief. He was bonded out of jail early on Wednesday morning.
Coming out of Florida in 2015, Dante Fowler Jr. was expected to be an impact edge rusher in the mold of Demarcus Ware and James Harrison. He tore his ACL his rookie season, which of course is not his fault. Following the injury, it was noted he really worked his ass off to come back. Fowler’s real rookie season last year was ho hum, registering 32 tackles and 4 sacks as a situational pass rusher. Basically after two seasons not befitting a 3rd overall pick, he definitely was heading into the 2017 season with something prove in a major way.
Welllll, things haven’t gotten off to a great start. Apparently last night Fowler was driving around an apartment complex like kind of a dick. When a passerby told him to cut the shit, the 6’3 260lb Fowler knocked off and stomped the guy’s glasses, then took his bag of freshly purchased booze and tossed it in a nearby lake.
Now, why the hell there is a lake so close to an apartment building is beyond me. An entire complex must be riddled with all sorts of small children and more importantly dogs that could potentially fall in said lake. Also this is Florida we’re talking about. I’m pretty sure any and every lake in Florida is teeming with alligators and anacondas and piranhas and other vicious creatures that could eat people. Combine that with the average intelligence of a Floridian and I’m surprised there isn’t a weekly bloodbath at this quaint little village.
So basically there is no excuse for what Fowler did. Imagine coming home after a hard day’s work, and strolling to the nearby packy to pick up some refreshments to enjoy while watching the game, only to have some donut-spinning asshole smack your spectacles off your head and then hurl your day’s reward into deathmonster infested lake you’ve carefully avoided your whole life. Just soul crushing. The Jags should not only cut Fowler, but the league should suspend him until he dives in there and retrieves that booze.
PS: It’s now coming out that Fowler had a previously unreported arrest for assaulting a cop that got brushed under the rug. Not looking great for the kid.
Season 7 premiered this week with “Dragonstone” and after 6 seasons filled with dozens of story lines and hundreds of characters we’re starting to see the wrap it up box in full effect.
Time to start tying up some loose ends. That may have been the shortest GOT opening credits ever as we’ve finally got all the characters on one continent with only a few key players really left. Now lets sort through them, House by House.
House Stark
Arya with one of the most satisfying moments in the show’s history just straight up erasing House Fray in one shot. You knew something was up when the show skipped the traditional into to get started without delay. GOT only does that when a bombshell is about to be dropped.
And boy did they deliver. We’ve seen Arya going down a dark path for a while now as she’s crossing names off her list one by one, but this was her coming out moment. This was where we all sat back and said oh shit Arya is in play, this isn’t a neat little trick any more, she can seemingly take out anyone at anytime. So now she’s on to kill the queen in Kings Landing. At this point does anyone doubt she actually can? The real question is whats her plan? Its not enough to just kill the people on her list, Arya has a flair for the dramatics as we’re now seeing. Does she ultimately take the face of Joffrey/Tommen/Myrcella/King Robert to really drive the dagger home? Or maybe she borrows the face of good old Ned Stark to fully enact her revenge. The North remembers indeed.
Jon Snow kicked off Season 7 by nearly getting cucked by his sister in front of all the North bannermen. Sansa openly questions his decision to not root out the Houses in the North that didn’t support the Starks against the Boltons. You can see the simmering tension in the power struggle as Jon has been proclaimed King in the North, but Sansa is still technically the heir to Winterfell as a trueborn child of Ned and Catelyn. Sansa tells her brother she just wants a seat at the table and that he’s actually quite good at leading, but if they continue to butt heads does this create a bigger problem for House Stark?
House Clegane/Brotherhood Without Banners
The Hound is the first character shown enduring the face that Winter has come, alongside the Brotherhood without Banners. If you remember the father and daughter that the Hound and Arya met last season, ate with and then robbed, it was a green field in a pretty moderate climate.
So Winter is not fucking around and it is creeping south pretty dramatically. The Hound also seems to have bought into the Lord of Light after looking into the flames with Thoros of Myr and seeing the dead marching. After all thats been made of his fear of fire, it will be interesting to see how this plays out, worshipping a fire god and all.
Speaking of Cleganes, the Mountain got himself some fancy new black armor huh? It looks like Cersei has done away with the gold cloaks and donned the Kingsguard (technically Queensguard now) in all black. All black everything just like Cersei’s outfit, is it because she’s in mourning for her children or is she just a black hole of a walking disaster thats about to suck everyone down with her?
House Mormont
Lyana Mormont is still a goddamn G. The fierce little girl from Bear Island legitimately undressing the grown men with decades of experience on her and reducing them to humbled nods.
Jorah Mormont has a meaaaan case of greyscale that has gotten significantly worse. Last season it was like a little bit of eczema on his wrist and now his whole entire arm looks like one of the stone men. Seems like he’s banking on the old maesters, who seemingly don’t do much, to save his ass. Probably ill advised. Can’t be a coincidence that Sam discovered the mountain of dragonglass hiding under Dragonstone though. Maybe thats the ticket to his cure, along with being a White Walker killer.
House Targaryen
Khaleesi FINALLY lands in Westeros after 6 seasons of build up and she gets a pretty baller ass castle with ZERO resistance on Dragonstone thanks to Stannis. The mother of dragons is now firmly within striking distance of Kings Landing so I’m curious how long GOT will play this out. Stannis got from Dragonstone to Blackwater Bay in like 2 episodes, please don’t make this a chore guys. Its also the first time we get a real good look at Dragonstone, its throne room and the overall Targaryen design (chalk full of dragons!) to it aside from the Westeros table map we’ve seen Stannis hover over for years.
Brienne of Tarth
Brienne is still drilling and training Podrick how to fight, who is actually starting to look like a pretty legit swordsman. Tormund is still trying to get it in with Brienne too, telling Podrick he’s “a lucky man” when he sees them fighting. These two will be fascinating to watch this year. Can’t let Jon Snow have the only wildling romance in this whole series right?
House Baelish/House Arryn
Whats Littlefinger’s plan? As Sansa points out, “I know exactly what he wants.” Did Sansa promise her own hand in marriage to Baelish in exchange for the Knights of the Veil? Without his help, Jon Snow would have been toast at the Battle of the Bastards with the Boltons. We all know Littlefinger’s ultimate goal is to climb the ladder of chaos and sit atop the Iron Throne. If he could lock down Sansa, he’d have the Veil and all of the North behind him, but Jon Snow really threw a wrench into that plan in last year’s season finale with the whole King in the North shit.
House Lannister
Jaime seems incredibly weary of Cersei, and rightfully so, because she’s gone off the deep end. “‘Enemies to the east, enemies to the west, enemies to the south, enemies to the north.” Now these two must plan for WTF to do next because legitimately the entire world is coming down on them and soon. Jaime attempting to explain to Cersei the amount of danger their in:
Doesn’t seem like theres going to be a happy reunion between these two and Tyrion either who’s back in town with his new friends.
House Greyjoy
We see Theon and Yara with Khaleesi as they have devoted their ships to the Mother of Dragons, but I think it would be shortsighted not to mention Euron Greyjoy for rocking the first leather biker jacket in Westeros history. Seriously the guy looks like he fell into Bam Margera’s closet. Euron is trying to play everyone and Cersei is not having it. You don’t get verbally abused by Tywinn Lannister for 40 years without picking up some cunning. He mentions he’s looking to marry the most beautiful woman in the world; a queen. BUT, he doesn’t say which one. Keep your eye on this one, he’s officially your Season 7 wild card.
Side notes:
The best meme I’ve seen yet for that odd and out of place Ed Sheeran cameo last night. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/2UI1Ukd6lU
— The 300s (@The300sBoston) July 18, 2017
Get Ed Sheeran the fuck off my tv screen. One of the most out of place celebrity cameos ever. It was unecessary, but worst of all it did something Thrones has never done; it made me realize I was watching a TV show. It took everyone out of the show for a few minutes as they asked, why the fuck is Ed Sheeran a Lannister soldier. God that was bad.
Did we really need a 5 minute montage of Sam cleaning up bed pans and dry heaving? Sam and Gilly continue to be the worst story line in the entire show. At least Bran’s storyline got the wrap it up box treatment. Bran legit wasn’t even in Season 5 and then last year he’s traveling through time, talking to Ned Stark at the Tower of Joy 20 years in the past, going face to face with a White Walker and ya know getting Hodor killed. RIP. What has Sam done? Got into a fight with his dad, stole his Valyrian sword (definitely something to remember) went to Oldtown with Gilly and the baby and now is stocking a library and working as a janitor. Riveting. He better come back to Jon with the goddamn secret sauce on how to defeat the Night King.
If thats not enough Game of Thrones talk for you, then stay tuned because we’ve got a brand new segment coming your way real soon…
UFC 214 is next week and is a STACKED card so instead of just putting out something next Friday or peppering in periodic updates, starting Monday I am going to use the entire week to cover it, save a quick peek you’ll find below. That leads to a pretty non-eventful few days over here on the MMA blog, but there are a few items of note to mention.
Brock Lesnar Returning?
This JUST broke yesterday evening. Twitter provocateur and MMA scoop ninja “Dizz” came out of America’s heartland to state that Brock Lesnar met with the UFC during International Fight Week, entered USADA’s testing pool, and will be returning to the Octagon. The UFC would obviously be all for a Lesnar return as he is an enormous draw, but it is a head-scratcher as to why Lesnar would do it, as he makes plenty of money on limited WWE appearances and has never seemed to really love professional fighting. I suppose his relationship with WWE could have soured again or something. Either way somehow Dizz is usually if not always fucking right so keep an eye on this.
https://twitter.com/TalkMMA/status/887612744060612608
Conor McGregor KO’d In Sparring?
Honestly either way this is much ado about nothing either way. Sometimes you just get caught, as many fighters have attested.
That said, the story went that two high-level pro boxers, Brandon Rios and Jessie Vargas, had come out and said they knew for a fact Conor had been KO’d in sparring, or something. Then Vargas came out and said he knew nothing and never said he did, or something. Then the picture below surfaced which clearly shows…something. Again, no matter which way you slice it it shouldn’t change anyone’s opinion of the fight. When highly trained grown men are swinging on each other, once in awhile someone is going to go down.
The Jon Jones/DC Social Media Beef Continues
I once threw down $10 on roulette in a small Indian casino in middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire in hopes it would grow to $50 to buy the PPV and watch DC-Jones I. I pulled it off and watched the fight, the disappointment cascading down my spine as Jones lackadaisically toyed with a mentally burnt-the-fuck-out DC. I am trying to stay hype for DC-Jones II as on paper it could be one of the best ever, but shit like you see below makes me not want to even watch as it is not only annoying, but evidence we’re probably going to see a repeat of the first fight.
Dana White’s “Tuesday Night Contender Series” Seems Pretty Cool, I’m Still Not Buying Fight Pass
So every Tuesday this summer, Dana White will put together five or so fights made up of contenders from regional promotions around the country with the possibility that one or more of the more impressive combatants will be signed to the UFC. This is a really cool idea and the fights have seemed to be really entertaining, especially considering the commentary is provided by Urijah Faber and Snoop Dogg. However, and I’ll admit I don’t know how TV deals work, I’m skeptical that there is really something so important going on that FS1 can’t air “DWTNCS” rather than it. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to finally get me to order UFC Fight Pass, but this isn’t it.
Anderson Silva Calls Out Nick Diaz Because Sure, Why Not
I’m not a psychologist, but it would seem Anderson Silva, who I regard as the GOAT for what it’s worth, is having just as much trouble letting go of the spotlight and prestige of being a prizefighter as he is the actual act of getting in the cage and competing. This week, he is trying to bait Nick Diaz to come out of unofficial retirement and rematch him, as he knows this is a run-back Diaz himself has even pined for in the past. The problems number two, one being that this fight lacks any of the intrigue or relevance the original did and two, even more importantly, Diaz has not only shown an apathy for the fight game but is kind of in a bit of shit with USADA for not telling them where he is….4 times. After a life of not exactly loving being punched in the face, Nick Diaz has figured out a way to support himself by showing up places as Nick Diaz, and I don’t know if anything would make him give that up to train for and participate in a fight. However, if anyone could lure him back, it would be Anderson
Cain Velasquez Is Returning To Fight Stipe Miocic In October?
Back in March Cain Velasquez’s coach said the oft-injured former Heavyweight champ was rarely training and didn’t seem to be in a rush to resume his MMA career. Dana White has said himself in the past that when you stop giving a fuck to that extent maybe it’s time to pack it in. At 35 with more injuries than I care to even add up all over his Goddam body on his resume, maybe Velasquez is done.
OR MAYBE, as reported a couple days ago on bjpenn.com, which shoots about 50% from the line, Cain Velasquez is returning to face Stipe Miocic for the title at UFC 216 In October. Although I know I JUST speculated Cardio Cain could be finished with his career, making this bout would not be as unlikely as it seems. Velasquez was last expected to fight for belt last February, beat Travis Browne (before we realized he was spent) in July, and was supposed to fight Werdum in December before the NSAC was like, “bro, you are wayyyy too fucked up to fight“. Basically if he has healed enough legally he could be good to go. And you know what the crazy part is? He could pull it off.
I’m old enough to remember the last time the Yankees made a mid-season deal to pick up a third baseman and, spoiler alert, it did not end well for the Red Sox.
Looks like this tweet didn’t age well:
Red Sox are in enviable position of needing a position at deadline no other contender really needs https://t.co/CXZLybPH4F
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 17, 2017
Regardless, I can’t get too worked up over this deal. I don’t know what the answer is at third base for the Red Sox, but I never thought it was Todd Frazier. Everyone said the Red Sox could get him for nothing, so I would’ve been okay if they brought him in as a flyer but Bobby Abreu he is not. Despite his pop™, Frazier is still just hitting .207 this season. Pablo Sandoval was hitting .212 when the Red Sox DFA’d him.
On a related note, here was Brock Holt after hearing that Frazier went to the Yankees:
The Red Sox – Yankees rivalry cooled off a few years ago, but hopefully this trade puts it back on the front burner. Every Red Sox – Yankees game was an event in Boston from 2003 through about 2010.
Maybe the rivalry cooling off had to do with George Steinbrenner passing away and Brian Cashman running the Yankees like a normal franchise. But the urge to dump high-ranked prospects for washed up veterans is hard to shake. I’ll take this as a sign that the rivalry is back on. I’m in.
The 300s 