Friday, 4 a.m.
Random Thoughts:
-- Maybe it's because I'm old, but the planet-gobbling conferences of college football are out of hand. Pretty soon, there will be a conference that consists of every team in America but one. That's right, USF will still be left out.
-- For all of you who are still looking for a place to put the Bucs' next Super Bowl title, consider this: The Bucs next season will be without Bruce Arians, Rob Gronkowski, Jason-Pierre Paul, Ndamukong Suh, Antonio Brown (yay), Ali Marpet, Alex Cappa and Jerome Whitehead. That's a lot of leadership leaving the meeting rooms.
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-- I'm still trying to figure out why the Rays played without Isaac Paredes and Harold Ramirez Wednesday night. Did Kevin Cash lose a bet?
-- How bad did Cleveland want to get rid of Baker Mayfield? They traded him for a mediocre draft pick, and they paid more than $10 million of his salary to send him to Carolina. If not, everyone would be talking about what a terrible trade the Panthers made. Instead, it's viewed as a terrible trade for the Browns.
-- On the other hand, the Panthers are building a nice collection of used quarterbacks. Who's next? Ryan Leaf?
-- The Bucs are in an awkward spot, waiting for Gronkowski, with their tight end spot. If they bring in a top tier replacement, they may not be able to afford Gronkowski if he does unretire. And why bring in anyone at all if they aren't top tier?
-- Now that the season is over, I still say Jon Cooper deserves an award. Jeff Vinik, too.
--- I always loved covering Wimbledon. Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News and I used to gather outside the gate and wait for Richard Williams to emerge after one of his daughter's matches. Richard would look for us, then say some of the most delightfully absurd things you could imagine. Good father, though.
-- Gee. Who do we believe in the thumb's-down review of Colin Kaepernick's workout. Warren Sapp, who can be outrageous but speaks the truth, or the guy who is paid to be in Kap's corner? Think I'll take Sapp in this one.
-- When I first heard about the NFL's rumored year-long suspension of DeShaun Watson, I thought "that's about right." On further reflection, he won't get half of that, even if he should.
-- Ranking the new Bucs: 1. Shaq Mason, 2. Akeim Hicks, 3. Logan Hall, 4. Russell Gage, 5. Luke Goedeeke, 6. Cade Otten, 7. Logan Ryan; 8. Jake Camera, 9. Zion McCallum, 910. Ko Kieft.
-- If Rich McKay gets into the Hall of Fame, how many calls will he get before the one from Jon Gruden comes?
-- I have no doubt that the people who run the Rays are smarter than I am. If they can make use of Yu Chang, they're geniuses.