While speculation continues to run rampant about Aaron Rodgers’ NFL future, the Green Bay Packers quarterback keeps adding to his resume in Hollywood.
A new promo released Saturday revealed that Rodgers is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC’s “The Conners.” Even more notably, he’ll be appearing as the host of “Jeopardy!” within the show.
This will only fuel speculation even further. Rodgers has made no secret that he wants to host “Jeopardy!” on a permanent basis after his well-received guest stint in April. It’s also been reported that he will at least be considered for the job.
No permanent host has been announced yet, but the fact that he’s appearing in the role here — presumably with the show’s blessing — may be a hint that he has a real shot at the gig. Of course, it’s also possible that the episode taped during his guest hosting stint, or that the show felt he would be best for ratings.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Rodgers’ ongoing drama with the Packers. It may leave some wondering where his priorities lie, but it’s clear that he’s keeping busy regardless of where things stand with the team.
The Chicago Bears have made clear that Justin Fields will get the chance to develop while Andy Dalton holds down the starting quarterback job. There’s a third quarterback on the roster, though, who seems completely frozen out right now.
In a recent appearance on the “Ferrall Coast to Coast” podcast, SiriusXM NFL reporter Adam Caplan noted that the Bears had sought to trade quarterback Nick Foles, but failed to find a taker. The Bears even reached out to Foles’ former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, but they weren’t interested.
“They fully guaranteed his $8 million back in March,” Caplan said. “He’s on the football team. He’s not moving. They tried to trade him to Philly and other teams. Nobody wanted him. He’s still there. He’ll back up Dalton this season.”
That $8 million salary is likely a big reason why there’s no interest in Foles. Anybody who wanted a starting quarterback more or less has one by now, and that salary is very high for a backup. Things may change if there’s a quarterback injury or something like that, but for now, the Bears aren’t going to have any luck with a trade.
Plus, there are doubts about whether Foles is good enough to start for a team with any real ambitions. The 32-year-old former Super Bowl MVP did little for Chicago in 2020, throwing for 1,852 yards, 10 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in nine games.
Back before the Bears signed Dalton and drafted Fields, they were still talking up Foles as a potential starter. Obviously, that’s changed, and now both parties appear stuck with each other.
Bryson DeChambeau learned an important and expensive lesson about making assumptions on Friday after an incredible odyssey that saw him leave, then return to the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte.
DeChambeau shot a three-over 74 on Friday, leaving him at two over for the tournament. Figuring he was guaranteed to miss the cut, the fifth-ranked player in the world headed back to his private jet and flew home to Dallas.
Little did he know that a windy afternoon meant those teeing off later in the day fared very poorly, and DeChambeau ended up making the cut after all. That put him in a tough spot, and he managed to secure a 2:45 a.m. flight back to Charlotte in order to make his Saturday tee time.
“It was funny,” DeChambeau said, via Daniel Rapaport of Golf Digest. “We did a lot of scrambling last night to get back. One of the scenarios was like turning right back around, but the crew couldn’t, you know, refuel and their hours were out. So we had to get a new crew, if anything, and it just didn’t work out.
“So we’re like, ‘Well, let’s just go in the morning.’ So I left at 2:45 on a flight and I got here at 6:20 a.m. Drove 30 minutes to the golf course, put on my clothes in the locker room and headed out to the putting green. I did get a workout last night, though.”
DeChambeau actually ended up shooting a three-under 68 on Saturday, putting him in position for a fairly respectable finish. It’s a finish he needs considering his travels did not come cheap.
“Way too expensive,” DeChambeau admitted. “But the thing is, I have a chance to go make a good check this week and I think that would offset it. So if I was to not come back and withdraw, lose world ranking points and all that, I had to incur the cost. It’s my fault.”
DeChambeau will probably take some ribbing for all this. Luckily, he should be used to that by now.
LaMelo Ball is considered the favorite to take home Rookie of the Year honors in the NBA, but Karl-Anthony Towns won’t let that happen without a fight.
After Friday night’s game, Towns gave an impassioned speech on behalf of Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Anthony Edwards. Towns argued that Edwards, the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, gets the most attention from opposing defenses and is facing double teams as a rookie, which speaks to his talent.
Edwards does lead all rookies with 19 points per game. Ball isn’t far behind with 15.9 points per game, though, and he bests Edwards in rebounds, assists, and steals per game.
Edwards isn’t shy about pointing out his contributions, and he’ll get his share of votes. It might be too late to overtake Ball for the award, though.
On the surface, the Philadelphia 76ers look to be hitting their stride just ahead of the playoffs. Veteran wing Danny Green, however, doesn’t see things the same way.
Green criticized the team’s recent play following Philadelphia’s 109-107 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, saying the team’s recent play is not good enough to win a championship.
“Not well,” Green said, via Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Not our type of basketball. We’re getting wins, but I don’t like the way we’ve been getting them. We’ve got to be more locked in. I’m not saying that to disrespect — any team can win on any given night. They’re very talented teams regardless. But these teams are not 100 percent healthy; they don’t have everybody.
“If we’re going to play like the No. 1 team in the East or a championship contender, a team that wants to be the last team standing with the potential we can play, we need to do a lot better. I think when guys see these teams, they feel like, ‘All right, we only need to play offense.'”
Green has a point. Though the Sixers have won seven in a row, a few of them were unconvincing. Philadelphia narrowly held off the Pelicans on Friday even though New Orleans was missing both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. They also needed overtime last Sunday to see off a San Antonio Spurs team that was resting several key players, including DeMar DeRozan and Dejounte Murray.
In the past, the 76ers have been accused of lacking experience, having mentality issues, and struggling with team chemistry. Green, who has won three NBA titles with three teams, definitely won’t allow that to creep back in. It might be exactly what the Sixers need to put a run together, and Green calling that out before the playoffs start can only help.
The end of JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 2020 season was one to forget. The Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver seemed to constantly be motivating his opponents whether he intended to or not.
The most notable example of this came before the Steelers’ AFC Wild Card game against the Cleveland Browns. Smith-Schuster infamously dismissed the opponents, stating that “the Browns is the Browns” and shrugging off the threat from them. The comment was seized upon by Browns players and fans, and looked particularly bad for Smith-Schuster after Cleveland’s 48-37 win.
Smith-Schuster reflected on the comment recently, and said while he was aware it motivated the Browns, he didn’t have any regrets.
“Probably a lot, honestly,” Smith-Schuster said on “PFT PM” when asked how much the remark motivated the Browns, via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk. “I’m not going to lie to you. It got to a point where the Cleveland Browns had a billboard up in Cleveland that said, ‘The Browns is the Browns.’ I think by me saying that, it says that a lot of people care about what I say.
“At the end of the day, I said what I said. I don’t take anything back. They did come out there, they did whoop our a–. It is what it is. We lost that game. We lost early in that game in the first five, 10 minutes.”
Credit to Smith-Schuster for owning it, because he’s definitely correct about it being a motivating factor. While he may have no regrets, he may want to be a bit more careful about handing opponents bulletin board material in the future. It went wrong for him a lot in 2020.
The New York Jets haven’t had a lot of luck drafting top quarterbacks the last couple times they’ve done it. With that being the case, they might as well try something unorthodox in the evaluation process.
Jets coach Robert Saleh certainly did that while attending quarterback Zach Wilson’s pro day at BYU. Wilson had faced questions about his size, and the Jets wanted them answered to see if he had more room to grow physically. To confirm this, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB, Saleh had former 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, a former BYU player in attendance at the event, go give Wilson a hug.
Why? Warner stands 6-foot-3 and 230 lbs., so he would provide a valuable point of comparison. The Jets came away pleased with what they saw, and the hug actually answered their few remaining questions about the player they ultimately selected second overall.
Wilson has shown encouraging signs in terms of preparing himself for the NFL, specifically playing in New York. In the end, though, it may well turn out that this hug was the key moment of the entire process.
With NHL rights shifting to two new networks next season, there’s a scramble to pick up on-air talent for coverage of the sport. In that race, it appears Turner has won the biggest prize of all.
According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, TNT is likely to add Wayne Gretzky as an analyst for its studio coverage starting in 2021-22. TNT was battling ESPN for Gretzky’s services, but ESPN bowed out when bidding for Gretzky significantly surpassed $2 million per year. Gretzky is expected to earn roughly $5 million from TNT.
Gretzky has never served as a broadcast analyst before, spending his retirement on business ventures, working with the Canadian men’s hockey Olympic team, and an ill-fated stint with the Phoenix Coyotes over a decade ago.
TNT loves to get big-name opinionated former players for its studio shows, as evidenced by the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Pedro Martinez on the network’s NBA and MLB coverage. It’s hard to see Gretzky being all that similar to Barkley in terms of unfiltered opinions, but nobody knows more about the sport than he does.
Wade Miley on Friday threw the fourth no-hitter of the MLB season, and he credited his son for giving him good luck.
Miley walked a batter and did not allow a hit while striking out eight in the Cincinnati Reds’ 3-0 win over the Cleveland Indians. Only two Indians players reached base — both in the sixth — as Miley dominated them to improve to 4-2 on the season with a 2.00 ERA.
After completing the no-hitter, Miley gave a shoutout to his son, Jeb, for giving him a temporary Incredible Hulk tattoo. He even said he might have to get a real tattoo of the Hulk.
Nice work, Jeb.
It’s only May 7 and there already have been four no-hitters this season. The Indians have been on the wrong end of two of them this season, as Carlos Rodon also got them. Joe Musgrove and John Means have thrown the other two no-hitters this season. Madison Bumgarner also threw a 7-inning no-no.
Brook Lopez explained his hilarious reaction to a dunk from Kenyon Martin Jr. that went viral on Friday night.
Lopez’s Milwaukee Bucks beat the Houston Rockets 141-133. Martin got to play significant minutes and put together a career-high 26 points, highlighted by an emphatic dunk in the third quarter.
The best part was the way Lopez reacted to the dunk.
So what was the deal with it? Lopez said he was just trying to give Martin the reaction he was looking for.
That’s hilarious. Mission accomplished, Kenyon.
