Sunday, 4 a.m.
Ever tried to sell. your house and have it fall through? Ever look at your old home and, with a curled lip, have to get used to it all over again? Imagine Stu Sternberg's feelings about Tropicana Field.
-- Hey, the turnaround has begun. USAToday.com released its NFL power ratings, and the Bucs were 18th. Top 20, baby. The website said the Bucs were a darkhorse to make the playoffs. Which isn't bad for a team with no secondary.
-- Did you see Asim, a male tiger, killed his prospective mate Melati at the London zoo. Roger Goodell should botch the case any day now.
-- I don't know about you, but I missed Steve Spurrier.
-- CBSsports starts its post on what NFL teams should do with their quarterback position in the off-season. It starts out with the Bucs, who it advises to sign Baltimore's Joe Flacco. That sound dodgy to me, since Bruce Arians has talked about not having his quarterback look over his shoulder. The website seems to understand and suggests that "re-signing Ryan Fitzpatrick is not adviseable" as some on the offense tended to gravitate to him and not Winston in the past, and it is time for a fresh start at the QB2 spot, needing someone else to really push the QB1. But isn't signing Flacco just more of the same?
-- Think the Bucs should sign running back Kareem Hunt? Well, he is the 38th-ranked free agent, according to Yardbarker.com. But three Bucs' free agents are ranked higher. Linebacker Kwon Alexander is 21st, tackle Donovan Smith is 30th and backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is 36th.
-- Let me get this straight. Stephen A Smith, the misguided one, says that Ohio State's Dwayne Haskins is "more of a runner than a passer." But with the Buckeyes, Haskins threw for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns. He ran for just 108 yards and four scores. Don't you think more defenses would have wanted him to throw?
-- Jim Harbaugh wants a statue of Tom Brady at the University of Michigan, which seems like jumping on the bandwagon at this point. Brady was better than you remember with Michigan, winning 20 games in the two seasons he started. But he'd be about 411th on the list of great Michigan athletes. You don't think that Harbaugh would like to point out such a statue to recruits, do you?
-- Rumor is that the Yankees will offer $220 million to ex-Oriole Manny Machado. Machado would get more if he could work on the simple art of running to first base.
-- This just in: The Orlando Sentinel has just declared the Orlando Apollos of the AAF the national champion and most likely to be absorbed into the NFL.
-- The Chiefs have told quarterback Patrick Mahomes that he isn't allowed to play basketball. Which means that the Chiefs will love the Orlando Magic players. They can't play basketball, either.
-- Did you see where the "camps" of Michael Jordan and LeBron James (translation: free-loaders who eat by saying "yes" a lot) hate each other because of the argument over the greatest of all time. Funny. I didn't think either player cared that much about Wilt Chamberlain's legacy.
-- J.J. Watt has become the second player (after JuJu Smith-Schuster) to refer to the Steelers as Team Kardashian, a collection of divas who have never really accomplished anything. So is Antonio Brown or Le-Veon Bell Kim? And who is Kloe? And who is Caitlyn?
-- Bleacher Report picked a "bust candidate" for every MLB team. For the Rays? It's Kevin Kiermaier, the suddenly brittle center-fielder.
-- Now that the NFL season is over, it seems no one can agree on where the Bucs should start to rebuild. A few early mock draft guesses: New York Post: Rashan Gary, DE; NFL.com: Josh Jacobs, RB (after a trade down) CBSsports.com: Greedy Williams, CB; Walter Football: Jawannn Taylor, OT; NBCsports.com: Jonah Williams, OT; USAToday: Byron Murphy, DB.
-- Clemson may have accidently given its athletes performance enhancing drugs. Same thing happened with Prince.
-- Quick poll: We all agree that Bill Belichick is the best NFL coach of all-time. But who is second? Don Shula? Chuck Noll? Bill Walsh? Greg Schiano? (Okay, that last name was a joke).
-- As a coach, too.
-- There is a rumor that the Cowboys didn't give Jason Garrett a longer contract because they're angling to hire Sean Payton from the Saints. I guess the Cowboys want to lose more in the playoffs.
-- Great jobs in sports? How would you like to be Dak Prescott's agent? Forget that he's not a top-level quarterback (despite a 33-18 record). But Prescott was 55th among the NFL in pay last year. Even if he doesn't get in top 12, he'll make a fortune.
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