The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Bad Birthdays & Worse Quarterbacks
Remember when we were worried about the Patriots being 2–2? Or wondering how the Chiefs finally had everything figured out? Turns out once we get a large enough sample size even the NFL oddities return to the norm. Outside of the surging Eagles and surprising Rams and Jaguars, pretty much the rest of the NFL is exactly what we thought it was going to look like. College Basketball is continuing their strong opening week with traditional blue blood programs battling it out in early season tournaments sponsored by every company under the sun (but let’s not pay the players because that would be ridiculous). Not much is new in the NBA as it enters it’s 6th week and College Football fans are all staring at their schedules wondering if they can make it to the playoff. With all that in mind let’s jump into this week’s weird and wacky:
The Good: Overachievers
Indiana Pacers backup point guard Joe Young plays, eats and sleeps basketball. Literally. The Pacers returned to their practice facility at roughly 2 AM following a win against Western Conference foe Memphis Grizzlies, at which point Young decided he wanted to get a few more shots up (500 to be exact). Next thing Young knew he was waking up at the free throw line after taking a 2 hour cat nap. Rather than head home Young decided to get another 500 shots before falling asleep again on the court. Have to love the work ethic here and let me be the first to congratulate Young on his upcoming mattress company sponsorship deal which should be coming any day now.
The Bad: UCLA Coach’s Bad Birthday
A little under 20 Million people were laid off or fired in 2016 according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That comes out to roughly 54,000 people being let go a day, with the average worker having a 0.27% chance to get fired on any particular day. Now if my math is right (which it very well might not be), 148 of the people that are fired every day are fired on their birthday.
Why all the math?
Because UCLA football coach Jim Mora became another statistic this past Sunday when he was let go on his birthday. The struggling Bruins decided it was time for a change after losing 3 in a row and needing a win this weekend to even become bowl eligible. Mora did come out of this all with a pretty stellar bday gift of a $12 Million dollar contract buyout so…all’s well that ends well?
The Ugly: The Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills surprised many this past week when they announced the benching of starting Quarterback Tyrod Taylor. For starters Taylor had been playing well, posting a 91.4 QBR (Quarterback Rating) which puts him ahead of players such as Andy Dalton and Phillip Rivers, and Taylor’s replacement was going to be rookie Nathan Peterman. Nathan who? Exactly. The Bills looked even worse when Peterman threw 5 interceptions in the first half and was benched for Taylor to resume his usual role in the second half.
