Jay Toia’s USC career was as brief as could be.
Toia has entered the transfer portal before ever playing a snap for the Trojans.
Toia was a 4-star recruit according to Rivals. The 6-foot-3, 320-pound defensive tackle committed to USC in June of 2018. He had offers from several schools, including a number in the Pac-12.
Toia, who attended Grace Brethren in Simi Valley, Calif., ended his high school career in December and enrolled early at USC. He looked good at spring practice and attracted attention from USC coach Clay Helton.
Though Toia’s transfer is surprising, he did show some signs last year of wavering on his commitment. In August, he took a step back to reevaluate his decision, though he ended up enrolling at USC anyway.
Now Toia is on the open market. Several schools will likely have interest in him.
Russell Westbrook was furious with a fan for dumping popcorn at him as he exited the floor on Wednesday night.
Westbrook was exiting Game 2 of Washington’s first-round playoff series against the 76ers after spraining his right ankle. As he headed towards the tunnel, some fan dumped popcorn on him.
Westbrook lost his mind:
Westbrook said after the game that he’s fine with fans trash talking, so long as it’s about sports. But when it gets derogatory or personal or about family, he believes that is crossing a line. He also felt that the fan dumping popcorn was crossing a line.
This is nothing new for Westbrook. He is extremely sensitive about fan behavior. He got a fan in Utah banned after their exchange in 2019. He pushed a Nuggets fan after a game.
This incident took place in Philadelphia. Westbrook said after the game that he had been flipped off in Philly before. Here is the proof.
It is safe to say that Montrezl Harrell seems to be enjoying his former team’s continued playoff struggles.
The LA Clippers lost Tuesday to the Dallas Mavericks to fall into an 0-2 hole in their first-round series. Both defeats came on the Clippers’ home floor.
After the game, Harrell ‘liked’ a tweet poking fun at the Clippers for claiming that he was the root of their issues.
The former Sixth Man of the Year winner also tweeted a cryptic message of his own about enjoying life, complete with several laughing-face emojis.
Harrell indeed became one of the scapegoats for the Clippers’ disastrous playoff meltdown last season. He is now with the rival Los Angeles Lakers and is faring slightly better with them (though he was a DNP-CD for the Lakers’ Game 2 win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday). Harrell has also already gone out of his way to clown the Clippers since his departure.
In addition to Harrell, guard Lou Williams and head coach Doc Rivers are no longer with the Clippers either. But the team still continues fall flat on their faces in the postseason. That has to be pretty vindicating for Harrell and company.
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty seemed to take issue with Joe West’s umpiring in the Giovanny Gallegos hat controversy on Wednesday.
West had Gallegos’ hat confiscated during the bottom of the seventh inning of the Cardinals’ 4-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. West felt Gallegos had illegal foreign substances on the hat that violated league rules. West ejected Cardinals manager Mike Shildt for good measure.
Shildt complained about the situation following the game. He said he did not understand the reasons for West’s actions when there are so many other matters in baseball to police instead.
Flaherty seemed to feel similarly to his manager and wondered on Twitter “what are we doing…”
Pitchers are not supposed to use foreign substances, but the argument from Shildt (and likely Flaherty) is that so many pitchers use them every game without the umpires addressing it. So why now, why this situation, was someone picked on about it? And is MLB finally taking a stand on the matter? The league was supposed to be cracking down on the matter. So it’s weird for them to allow foreign substances all year and then only selectively enforce in this instance.
Paul Pierce is happy to let his old boss know that he is living his best life.
The retired former Boston Celtics star took to Twitter on Wednesday to clown ESPN after he was let go by the network last month. Pierce bragged about how he had made more money in cryptocurrency over the last month than he made with ESPN in a year.
The 43-year-old Pierce had worked as an analyst for ESPN in the last few years, appearing on programs such as “The Jump” and “NBA Countdown.” But he was fired after streaming an inappropriate Instagram Live video.
Pierce posted a funny video response to being let go where he promised big things to come. Perhaps becoming a crypto king was what Pierce was alluding to all along.
St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt fumed over how Major League Baseball is enforcing rules against foreign substances after reliever Giovanny Gallegos’ hat was confiscated during Wednesday’s game.
Umpires confiscated Gallegos’ hat amid concerns that it had a foreign substance on it. This prompted Shildt to go on a ten-minute monologue after the game, saying it felt like a “setup” and criticizing the league for focusing on minor things like sunscreen and rosin instead of actual substances that pitchers use to cheat.
“This is baseball’s dirty little secret, and it’s the wrong time and the wrong arena to expose it,” Shildt said. “Gio wears the same hat all year. Hats accrue dirt. Hats accrue substances, just stuff. We pitched in a day game. Did Gio have some sunscreen at some point in his career? Possibly. Does he use rosin to help? Possibly. Are these things that baseball really wants to crack down on? No, it’s not. I know that completely first-hand from the commissioner’s office.
“There are people that are effectively, and not even trying to hide it, essentially flipping the bird at the league with how they’re cheating in this game with concocted substances. There are players that have been monetized for it. There are players that are obviously doing it. There is clear video of it. … How about the integrity of the guys that are doing it clean? That’s how you want to start policing this?”
Shildt issued another statement clarifying that he did not blame the umpires for the situation, and that policing foreign substances shouldn’t even be their responsibility.
Shildt is right that plenty of pitchers use foreign substances, and sometimes it doesn’t take much digging to catch it. For years, the league has looked the other way, but so far, promises of stricter enforcement have not amounted to much more than this. Gallegos’ hat being confiscated didn’t even seem to be the product of an opponent complaint, either.
It’s hard to enforce the rules on these substances, which sometimes are inconsistent or hard to catch. Shildt’s frustration is entirely understandable. It’s even more reasonable since it seems Gallegos wasn’t really suspected of anything beyond having a dirty hat, while a lot of pitchers get away with much worse.
Alex Rodriguez’s bid to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves has hit another roadblock.
Meyer Orbach, the Timberwolves’ second-largest shareholder, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis alleging that the pending sale violates the franchise’s partnership agreement, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The complaint claims that the “tag-along rights” of minority owners are not being honored in the sale to Rodriguez and Marc Lore.
The complaint also claims that the $1.5 billion sales agreement between Lore, Rodriguez, and current owner Glen Taylor does not include a provision requiring the new owners to keep the franchise in Minnesota. Taylor has publicly stated that such a clause is contained within the agreement.
Rodriguez and Lore had previously agreed a deal with Taylor that seemingly only required the approval of the league’s Board of Governors. Now, this may have to be dealt with before any further progress is made on the sale.
Aaron Rodgers has the backing of at least one longtime NFL quarterback in his ongoing spat with the Green Bay Packers.
Alex Smith, most recently with the Washington Football team, criticized the Packers for failing to consult with Rodgers before drafting Jordan Love. Smith said it was “inexcusable” that this was not communicated to Rodgers beforehand, especially with the Packers in contention for championships.
“It’s inexcusable how they ever got to this point,” Smith told Colin Cowherd Wednesday on “The Herd.” “Aaron’s been there 16 years, what he’s given to that organization and been there. … I don’t think it was the fact that they drafted Jordan Love in the first round. How do you have a guy like Aaron and you aren’t going out of your way to make sure that he knows that he’s loved, that they want him there? That we may be taking a quarterback in the first round, we want to make sure you’re okay with it.
“You’re thinking you’re a move away from the Super Bowl and then blindsided with a pick. I just don’t understand how you haven’t addressed that beforehand when you make a move like that.”
It’s worth noting that Packers GM Brian Gutekunst seems to agree with Smith to a certain degree. Fundamentally, some of these problems could have been prevented with better communication.
The Packers don’t seem to regret the Love selection. They also don’t appear any closer to resolving the Rodgers situation, and if Smith’s thinking aligns with Rodgers, it’s fair to see why.
Photo: All-Pro Reels/Flickr via CC BY-SA 2.0
Los Angeles Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway has been banned from baseball until at least the end of the 2022 season following an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
Callaway, the former manager of the New York Mets, was accused of inappropriate behavior by five women who worked in sports media. The behavior included sending unsolicited shirtless photos and requests for nude photos, and spanned multiple years dating back to his time as pitching coach with Cleveland.
In a statement issued Wednesday, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred called Callaway’s placement on the league’s ineligible list “warranted,” and that Callaway would not be eligible to apply for reinstatement prior to the conclusion of the 2022 season. The Angels subsequently confirmed that Callaway has been fired as pitching coach.
Callaway spent two unsuccessful seasons as Mets manager. Prior to that, he was Cleveland’s pitching coach under Terry Francona from 2013-2017.
Photo: D. Benjamin Miller/Wikimedia via CC0
Adam Vinatieri made it official on Wednesday: he’s finished playing in the NFL after 24 seasons.
Vinatieri announced on “The Pat McAfee Show” that he has filed the paperwork to officially retire. The 49-year-old four-time Super Bowl champion has not kicked in an NFL game since 2019.
Vinatieri is pretty much synonymous with clutch kicking, converting two Super Bowl-winning kicks for the New England Patriots among a number of others throughout his career. His last couple years were marred by injuries, and a bid to come back after undergoing knee surgery never materialized.
Even though he struggled in his last season with the Indianapolis Colts, that will be quickly forgotten in light of his numerous successes. He’ll be remembered as one of the greatest and most clutch kickers in NFL history.
