The NFL will own your life, a former Flyers goon hasn’t changed, and other thoughts
When everything is available to everyone instantaneously all the time, scarcity is a precious commodity, maybe the most precious. The NFL seems bent on testing that truth.
First and final thoughts, rapid-fire style …
The NFL is reportedly considering scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Eve as soon as this season, and the only appropriate question to ask is, why stop there?
There are now three games each Thanksgiving and three games each Christmas, and we already have Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, and there are always a couple of games on the last Saturday before Christmas, and the Eagles and Bears even played on Black Friday last year. So it’s only a matter of time before the league forms the Tuesday Night Football Club, with Sheryl Crow performing at halftime.
Soon enough, a regular season that is now 17 games will be 18 games, which means that, soon enough, the Super Bowl will be pushed back to the weekend before Presidents Day. And who knows where the big game will be played? Could be New Orleans. Could be Tampa. Could be London. Could be Mexico City. Could be Hamburg or Hangzhou. Maybe Roger Goodell won’t tell anyone until the week of the game, just to see how far we’ll fly and how high we’ll jump for our fix. Think of it: We’ll go right from the Super Bowl to the Scouting Combine to free agency to the draft to the start of training camp to a new, souped-up regular season with at least one game on every night of the week.
» READ MORE: Murphy: It’s time to admit what the Eagles have been telling us all along during this free agency period
And all this will unfold, of course, without putting the men who play an already brutal sport at any greater risk for their immediate and long-term health, without diluting the product to the point that the games grow as sloppy and unwatchable as a high school JV team’s first practice, without ruining the best thing that pro football has going for it. When everything is available to everyone instantaneously all the time, scarcity is a precious commodity, maybe the most precious. The NFL seems bent on testing that truth. …
Between the 38-plus minutes Tyrese Maxey was logging every night and his recent remarks about the 76ers’ sagging play and morale, I began picturing him as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. I wondered what would break first: his spirit or his body. Guess we got our answer. …
Never met the man, but I’m willing to bet that Mark DeRosa would be surprised to learn that football games can end in ties. …
If Dan Hurley coached in Philadelphia, his team — whether the Sixers or one of the Big 5 programs — would instantly become the most interesting one in town. Just for his presence and personality. …
Former Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, now with the Anaheim Ducks, knocked out Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews for the rest of the season with a knee-on-knee hit Thursday night. The only thing more outrageous than Gudas’ action is the NHL’s spinelessness in suspending him for just five games.
Those familiar with Gudas’ tenure in Philadelphia, from 2015 to 2019, should have simply shaken their heads at his familiar and continued dirty play. He was suspended four times during that four-year stretch with the Flyers for a combined 21 games. Slashing, high-sticking, targeting an opponent’s head: Gudas did it all and more.
“He has proved to be … a cheap-shot aficionado,” I wrote about him in February 2016, “reckless, careless, damaging to the Flyers’ chances of winning and to other athletes’ health and safety, a player who can’t be trusted by either his teammates or his opponents to play a tough, clean game.”
A decade later, nothing has changed. …
The Atlantic 10 held its men’s postseason basketball tournament in Pittsburgh this week, because when you think of A-10 hoops and history, the first thing you think of is … Duquesne?
A note to all Philly-area parents of children and teenagers who love basketball: If you have the means and opportunity, buy a couple of train tickets for yourself and your sons and daughters, hop on Amtrak or New Jersey Transit up to Penn Station, and take your kids to a game at the Big East Tournament.
» READ MORE: Villanova’s bad Big East tournament loss shouldn’t mar Kevin Willard’s good work. Just ask Dan Hurley.
Thursday night’s quarterfinals were, as usual, sold out — 19,000-plus in Madison Square Garden loud and locked in and creating a remarkable atmosphere for games and rivalries that matter. Nothing this week or even the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament comes close. It’s a remarkable event, it always is, and it’s a two-hour trip away, maybe less. Too many people from the Philadelphia region act as if New York City is on the dark side of the moon. Two hours is nothing. Two hours is a drive down to Sea Isle City or up to the Poconos. Go. It’s great.