Sked reveal part of NFL’s must-see offseason
Thinking out loud … while wondering if at first you don’t succeed, do we have a lot in common?
Leave it to the NFL to make releasing the game schedule another can’tmiss event to watch during the offseason. Men in tights, guys getting drafted live in front of 600,000 fans, rookies practicing without pads and analysts trying to tell us about a meaningful game six months away.
The Park Avenue marketing machine in New York is nothing if not creative. They’ve cast a voodoo spell over us all. And the TV show previewing the schedule on NFL Network was terrible. But we have games to talk about.
You’ll need to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, ESPN+, YouTubeTV, Peacock and NFL Network this season to watch these games, in addition to CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and ABC. So much for “free TV.” Just sayin’.
● The Patriots open on the road at Cincinnati. Week 2 is the home opener against Seattle and New England gets a European trip for a second straight year — this time to London to face Jacksonville on Oct. 20.
● Any chance Trevor Lawrence hits the injured list so Mac Jones can start against his former team? Let’s put the Park Avenue marketing whizzes on that storyline, shall we?
● The Patriots are tied for the eighth-toughest slate. They get no one coming off a bye. They’ll fly the fourthmost miles of any team in the league, but they’re tied for the second-best “rest differential” between games of any team in the league since 2002.
● The winningest general manager in Los Angeles Chargers’ history, A.J. Smith, died last week at age 75. Born in North Smithfield, Smith grew up in Cranston and graduated from Bishop Hendricken in Warwick. After college,
he taught physical education in Providence, coached at Cranston West and in Kingston at URI.
A one-time Patriots’ scout (1978-80), Smith also was the GM for five Chargers’ teams that won AFC West titles. He helped build Buffalo teams that won four AFC championships, too. The Pro Football Writers Association of America voted Smith as the NFL Executive of the Year in 2004.
He might just be at the top of that Rhode Island athletic legacy established at Hendricken.
● Reportedly, a big-time schedule switch this week puts Providence in the loaded “Battle 4 Atlantis” tournament in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving, as Creighton pulled out of the event to get into the Players’ Era NIL tourney in Las Vegas.
Back to the Bahamas? It’s always better to be lucky than good.
● Arizona, Gonzaga, Indiana, Louisville, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Davidson. How’s that for a nonconference step up? Mohegan Sun is looking for a PC replacement in the Hall of Fame Showcase, and reportedly the Friars may play a single game (or two) in the facility as a make-good for the late change.
● Following the verbal acceptance of a scholarship to play at PC (for 2025) last week from 6-foot-6inch top-20 wing Jamier Jones, Providence has 2025’s No. 1-rated recruiting class in the country, says 247Sports.com.
Never mind that it’s still early. Never mind that there are only two kids in the class, and that one of them may reclassify to play in 2024 (6-10 big Oswin Erhunmwunse). Cool to see the Friars at the top. Even cooler to know Kim English and his staff are out hunting, and bagging, big-game players.
● Speaking of big-game players, Devin Carter’s stock is rising rapidly following his demonstration at last week’s NBA Draft Combine. He set the all-time combine record for the three-quarter-court sprint (2.87 seconds) and led all players at this year’s event with a 42-inch vertical jump and a 35-inch standing leap.
● Yes, the Celtics held off undermanned Cleveland last week in the Eastern Conference semis. Yes, they were supposed to — but one trait appears troubling.
The inability to adjust defensively on the fly is a problem. First, guarding the Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell, and when he was out injured, defending Darius Garland. Is it hubris (“We know we’re better”) or is it a lack of knowledge?
Seems to me “Johnston Joe” Mazzulla still has a challenge on his hands with his coaching philosophy, or perhaps in the messaging to his players.
● My buddy “Big E” says a man will never have a successful relationship with a woman if he can’t tell the difference between a smile and a warning.
● Here’s the thing about the NCAA today: Our world has changed and it can no longer control it. Sorry, Charlie (Baker).
The days of asking Congress for help to remain “immune” to the professionalism of what were once amateur sports are gone. There’s simply too much money involved. Billions. The networks keep offering it up, and the schools/conferences, naturally, keep taking it.
This is an election year, and few (if any) politicians have the stomach for a tide that has risen against them.
Yahoo! Sports reported a deal between power conference commissioners and the NCAA is nearing completion. Which means nearly $3 billion in “back pay” (mostly from television revenue) to former athletes, a new revenue-sharing model with current athletes (where collective bargaining is likely to begin) and an overhaul of scholarship and roster structures are on the way.
That revenue-sharing model? Anywhere from $17 million to $25 million per school. A fluctuating cap is expected to be set at approximately 22% of a power schools’ revenue stream. And this has nothing to do with NIL money, either. Frankly, the greedy admins at schools across the country are as guilty as anyone for the present state of our “amateur” sports. They’ve been nothing more than addicts and junkies saying yes to their pushers and dealers.
At issue today is what to do about Title IX equality laws for women’s athletics, and booster-led collectives. The conference meetings taking place across the country over the next couple of weeks, and the leagues’ acceptance (or non-acceptance) of new standards may very well decide the future of college athletics in some places.
Like … will your school be in, or out, of the way the
Former Providence star Devin Carter impressed at the NBA combine this week.
game is to be played for the foreseeable future?
Will there be a school that decides this new era is too much to tackle? URI rival Richmond announced this week it was leaving the Coastal Athletic Association (in football only) for the Patriot League after winning the CAA title last season.
● The Football Bowl Sub-division has risen to 137 schools, even with the price tag to move up from the FCS growing from $5,000 to $5,000,000 — where URI, Brown and Bryant compete.
Not for nothin’, but there are nine states that currently do not have FBS programs — including four of the six New England states. Rhode Island is one of those.
Missouri State made the climb, and paid the new price, just this past week from the Missouri Valley into Conference USA. Kennesaw State in Georgia, and Delaware, another longtime URI rival, will make the move up by 2026.
● X post of the Week, from @FrontOfficeSports: “In February, a fake report claimed that Marquette star Tyler Kolek was suspended because he failed his exams and he ‘couldn’t read.’ His caption (on an “X” post about him) after graduating this weekend — ‘I can read.’ ”
● Doug Gottlieb — my former on-air partner at ESPN Radio in the mid-2000s — was hired this week as head basketball coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Doug was born in Milwaukee; he’s opinionated, sure, even controversial. But there’s not much doubt about his knowledge of the game. He’ll get the chance to prove it, and keep his radio job (currently with Fox) at the same time.
It’s a brilliant PR move, really, even if it is unprecedented. Good for Doug — he likely takes less money so it can be spent on recruiting staff. Good for the school — they also get daily PR exposure when he hosts his national show. And it’s a gamble if he can’t do either job well enough, isn’t it?
● Last week, the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun had its first opening-day sellout in 21 years for the home opener, against the Indiana Fever. The cheapest ticket went for $110. The cheapest ticket for the next home game — $17. That’s the Caitlin Clark effect.
● Shout out to the CCRI softball team, which is heading to the Division III National Junior College Athletic Association World Series for the first time in program history. The 30-2 Knights are ranked sixth nationally and will play next week in Chattanooga, Tenn.
● Was there anything, hockey fans, more egregiously wrong than Florida’s Sam Bennett’s crosscheck on Boston’s Charlie Coyle into Jeremy Swayman, resulting in game-swinging momentum, as well as a goal, during Game 4 against the Panthers?
Used to think NHL officiating was some of the best in the major sports. But that was a low moment for pro hockey, period. And a bad one for the Bruins. Unrecoverable, even if Florida proves to be the better team.
One of the great contemporary musicians, saxophone and jazz artist David Sanborn, died last week at age 78 after battling prostate cancer. Maybe you don’t know his solo work, but chances are you’ve heard him playing with superstars such as Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and others.
It has been said about Sanborn that he “put the saxophone back into rock ‘n’ roll.” Dude was a true talent, winning six Grammy Awards for his pop and jazz music.
Interested in having your questions on Rhode Island sports (and, yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Think out loud and send your questions, comments and local stories to jrbroadcaster @gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/ Facebook posts/threads right here! Join me on Twitter/X, @JRbroadcaster; on Facebook, www. facebook.com/john.rooke, and on Instagram and Threads @JRbroadcaster.