Heinicke documents farewell to Washington
Taylor Heinicke’s departure from the Commanders included a post on The Players’ Tribune, in which he said that “it’s heartbreaking to be leaving.” He touched on his “little bit rocky” end of the season with coach Ron Rivera and acknowledged his weaknesses (“I don’t have the strongest arm. I threw a decent amount of picks. I do some dumb stuff out there sometimes.”) before finishing on a spunky note (“But I also fight like hell. And I know how to get W’s.”). What a great story the kid wrote for himself in Washington.
Praiseworthy: If you watched Fox Sports’ postgame panel following Japan’s win over the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic final, you witnessed the appreciation bordering on awe Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez and Big Papi Ortiz had for Shohei Ohtani, who seemed a little embarrassed by all the fuss. The night was a big win for baseball anywhere in the world it’s played.
Money matters: When his contract is up at the end of this season, Ohtani’s free-agent deal could be worth $600 million, according to baseball insiders. Let’s say around $350 million as a pitcher, $250 mil as a hitter. The market has never seen anything quite like him.
Neighborly: My favorite feelgood March Madness story is the University of Dayton band traveling the one-hour plus to Columbus, Ohio, to play the Fairleigh Dickinson fight song for the New Jersey upstarts during their victory over No. 1 seed Purdue. Fairleigh Dickinson doesn’t have a band, but the Dayton musicians learned the fight song minutes before tipoff and returned for the Knights’ second-round loss to Florida Atlantic. Good people at Dayton.
Local ties: Jack Castleberry, who was promoted to Fairleigh Dickinson’s head basketball coach this week after Tobin Anderson got the Iona job, is the son of former ODU radio voice and TV sportscaster John Castleberry. It was while hanging around ODU practices with his father that Jack decided he wanted to coach.
Absolution: Attending the introductory press conference at St. John’s for Rick Pitino was Lou Carnesecca, the 98-year-old coaching patriarch. Asked how Pitino’s scandal-scarred professional and personal history lines up with the Catholic school’s stated values, Louie said, “It’s very simple. That’s why we have confessions.”
Disingenuous: More eyewash courtesy of the St. John’s president, who said he hired Pitino because he will improve the players as people. At the same time, Pitino was saying that “a lot” of players “won’t be back” as he makes room for superior talent. Looks like the kids will just have to become better people elsewhere.
Rush hour: Once again, the NCAA men’s basketball portal needs an HOV lane.
Unspoken subject: During transfer rush hour, a subject that never comes up is how academically fit the school jumpers are. How many class hours did they take at their previous stops? Or are the liberal transfer rules another sign that many colleges have given up trying to be anything more to athletes than a minor league for the pros? It’s very quaint even to raise this point.
Turnabout: Arkansas, which toppled No. 1 seed Kansas to advance to the tournament’s second week, lost four of its final five games heading into the NCAAs. Another example of why nobody can put together a coherent bracket.
Quotable: Tom Brady to a Tampa Bay Times reporter: “There is nothing I love more than football, but I have young children and they watched enough of their dad’s games and it’s time for me to watch their games.” But NFL teams still have his phone number, right?
Best forgotten: On Ezekiel Elliott’s final play as a Dallas Cowboy, he lined up at center.
For show: NFL Pro Days are choreographed charades calculated to create publicity. But the practice of watching quarterbacks dressed in shorts throw flashy passes to open receivers has deluded more than one team into making a bad pick.
Closing: Because the brackets of the casually interested blow up in the first week of March Madness, basketball’s NCAA Tournament is the only major sporting event in which general interest declines the closer it gets to identifying a champion.