An incredible image in Phoenix earlier this week as a young ICU nurse, Lauren Leander, silently stood up to the dopes protesting stay-at-home measures at the state capitol. And there’s more to this story than you may have read on CNN.com.
Sports-addled Phoenicians are familiar with the surname Leander. That’s because Tom Leander has been the pre- and post-game (and halftime) TV host for Phoenix Suns games for more than a decade or so here. Maybe closer to two decades, I’m not sure. Tom Leander is Lauren’s father. If you’ve seen the guy who sits next to Tom Chambers on these broadcasts, that’s Tom. He’s a well-known and well-liked figure in the Valley. And he’s probably never been more well-liked (and more despised by some) than he is today.
Now, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I attended a Jesuit high school in Phoenix (Brophy), which is also Tom Leander’s alma mater. He’s two years older than I am. When Tom was a senior he was the starting point guard on what may have been the best Brophy basketball team ever put together: it also had Mark Alarie, the state’s player of the year who would go on to be a four-year starter at Duke (part of Coach K’s first great recruiting class, that also included Jay Bilas and Johnny Dawkins), Rich Zacher (whose younger brother Mike remains one of my closest friends and is also the Arizona Cardinals’ team dentist), Curtis Bruggman (whose son Tyler played quarterback at Wazzu before transferring to Louisville) and a glue guy named Bill Van Dyke.
Anyway, an incredible team (that somehow lost before even reaching the state finals). But in the past two weeks the daughters of two of those teammates have made national headlines. Early last week, I think it was, Bella Alarie was taken fifth overall in the WNBA draft, which is quite a feat for anyone much less a Princeton grad. And now Lauren Leander. These young women have done their Brophy pops proud.
Is someone gonna draft Mekhi Becton’s pops (gray shirt)?
Did You Feel A Draft?
Thoughts, rants, observations from last night’s “virtual” NFL draft:
–New Orleans only had one pick, but ABC/ESPN/Disney and Tom Rinaldi sure turned a plethora of first-rounders into saints. If your pops died or you knew someone who died or you were related to someone who nearly died, YOU garnered your own tinkling ivory feature. If you happened to be the superior player at your position… meh.
Rinaldi almost always goes “Bart’s People” on College GameDay, but for three hours of prime time? Wow. Exhausting. He almost seemed disappointed that none of the players drafted had the coronavirus. On to the picks…
— Joe Burrow at No. 1 and Chase Young at No. 2. Both players grew up within about 50 miles of the stadiums in which they’ll play, in Cincy and Washington. Burrow is straight outta 1954. Just he and his parents hanging on the couch. They might as well have been watching Uncle Milty or Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows.”
–Quarterbacks Tua and Justin at 5 and 6, to Miami and San Diego. It was something to hear Nick Saban say that Tua was just about the most popular player ever to go through his program in Tuscaloosa. That’s saying something. Hoping the best for him, but he’s not tall and he has suffered two major injuries already. It’s not that he’s soft, it’s that he plays in such a way where he takes more hits than you’d like and he’s about to play against even bigger, faster, nastier boys. Herbert is laid back, even for SoCal. That’ll be interesting to see.
–By the way, the SEC set a record with 15 first-round picks. Herbie had some fun at the end of the broadcast noting that ESPN’s “SEC bias” has apparently infected NFL scouts and GMs as well.
–The two picks following the two QBs are my favorites: Auburn DT Derrick Brown to Carolina and Clemson LB Isaiah Simmons to Arizona. These are a pair of Quenton Nelson-level locks for this draft. I love what Arizona did, particularly, because they didn’t worry about upgrading offense, they simply took the best player available. Two special non-QB talents here.
–My first giddy moment of the night was the scene at 6’7″, 365-pound LT Mekhi Becton‘s pad when the Jets picked him at No. 11. The Louisville lineman was almost crushed by his pops, who looks as if he’s pushing 400. Loved how Rece noted Mrs. Becton is a caterer specializing in soul food. You don’t say…
–As soon as the Jets passed on a wideout at No. 11, after the GameDay gang had speculated on which receiver they’d pick, my eyes went directly to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys at 17. We know Jerry Jones. He loves sizzle. He loves OU. He loves wideouts. You could feel America’s Team and CeeDee Lamb coming together right then even though it was still six picks away, no?
–Maria Taylor informed us, in her lovely canary-yellow dress, that Iowa OL Tristan Wirfs is so athletic that he can walk on his hands, then they cut to a Wirfs feature in which he did not walk on his hands. The first WTF moment of the night for me.
–How did that Javon Kinlaw-grew-up-homeless story go un-Rinaldi’ed last season? That’s incredible. Riding the metro in D.C. just to stay warm? And what about the 100s (1,000s?) of kids who grow up this way who don’t have the advantage of growing up to be 6’5″ and malevolent? This is where football needs to never be eradicated. It allows for legal assault and for young men to become rich doing so.
–The Raiders took Alabama WR Henry Ruggs at 12 and the Broncos took teammate and fellow wideout Jerry Jeudy at 15. Both AFC West teams, they play twice a year. Honestly, I don’t know which one I’d rather have. But I don’t have a problem with them being the first two wideouts taken. One is mercury-fast and the other is the country’s top route-runner. Both are poison to defenses. If I had to choose one it would be Ruggs simply because he wore a bathrobe to the draft. That must be a first.
–Didn’t know much about Clemson CB A.J. Terrell but seeing him on camera, I liked the cut of his jib. He’s a hometown ATL kid whose intials are AT and name ends in an “L.” Some things you just don’t question. Also liked that Rece noted how the Falcons new unis conjure up The Mean Machine from The Longest Yard.
–And there it is! The Cowboys take CeeDee Lamb. The GameDay crew notes that this will make QB Dak Prescott happy while they try to figure out exactly where Jerry Jones is watching from: his yacht? His Dr. Evil underground lair? A cathouse outside Reno? Who knows? I’m looking at Lamb on the split-screen, but all I see is his girlfriend’s legs which are about a mile long and not covered by any type of garment. By the way, Dak’s older brother died last night. Only 31. Cause of death not announced.
—Kenneth Murray to the Chargers. Always liked the OU middle linebacker, and this was the one Rinaldi feature that touched me. Murray’s parents have adopted, ADOPTED, not one, not two, but THREE special needs children. These people are saints. My only guess as to why this never got the Rinaldi Treatment is that the parents put the kibosh on it, which only makes me admire them more. This was the most tremendous epiphany of the night, easily. Murray’s gonna walk into that LA locker room with the maturity of a six-year veteran. Rooting for him.
–San Fran takes ASU’s Brandon Aiyuk at No. 25. I like Aiyuk, but man, you still had fellow receivers Tee Higgins and Michael Pittman and Devin Duvernay on the board. Wow. Aiyuk is 6’0″ but has the wingspan of a dude whose 6’6″. Crazy.
–The most What The WTF move of the night comes next. With all those DUDES at wideout still on the board, not to mention every single RB and TE (not one has been selected yet), and with QB Aaron Rodgers, an all-timer, about to enter his 16th season, the Packers choose…. quarterback Jordan Love?!?
I get it. This is how the Packers replaced the seemingly irreplaceable Brett Favre 16 or so years ago. But Rodgers is a young 36, he’s got no plans to go anywhere. Meanwhile, didn’t the Pack advance to the NFC Championship game just a few months earlier? Man, they just stuck a middle finger in Rodgers’ face. One can only imagine what his State Farm agent (and his other agent) thinks about this.
Can you see the life-sized cut-out of Coach O in the background of the Queen home?
Props to Herbie, who knows how safe his job is and thus doesn’t mind dipping into controversy when the occasion calls for it, for calling this out and noting that he foresees “Drama.” Green Bay should have either taken Tee Higgins (our best WR available), or J.K Dobbins or Jonathan Taylor (a pair of Big Ten RBs who are used to the weather and run hard and tough) or even Cole Kmet, a Chicago kid tight end who would’ve become a fan fave. Instead, they took a QB from California, and while that worked out well the last time, this, I feel, was a stupid move.
–Loved the share-the-earbuds interview with LSU DE Patrick Queen and his pops. Seems obvious that Queen, who only earned a starting spot last season, doesn’t get to where he did without pops pushing him. Loved when they asked Queen what it took to get here and he spoke candidly, “A lot of fights.” Dads, you’re not there to be your kids’ friends. You’re there to help them grow into the men (and women) they can be. What a great lesson.
–Both of Auburn CB Noah Igbinoghene‘s parents were Olympic track athletes? Take that man! Also, this was the most exuberant in-home celebration we saw. They might have been flagged for excessive celebration.
–Love that the first round book-ended with the LSU backfield, as Burrow was selected first and RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire was selected 32nd (by the Super Bowl champion Chiefs). Andy Reid must obviously love what a great pass catcher the 5’7″ Helaire is out of the backfield, as well as a good blocker. But man, it’s tough to pass up talents such as J.K. Dobbins (no one runs angrier), Jonathan Taylor or De’Ande Swift.
We nearly went the entire first round with no RBs selected
Just before the Chiefs took Edwards-Helaire, the GameDay crew mused on the fact that K.C. might take an RB and mentioned a few names, but not his. So it goes…
— I usually like David Pollack, but someone needs to tell him and like yesterday that he should eliminate “bro” from his vocabulary. He’s a grown-ass man on TV. Not a Sigma Nu pledge (Is there a Sigma Nu? I have no idea).
–Forgot to keep track of Desmond Howard’s featured albums and I didn’t join the telecast until the 10th pick, so I may have missed an early one. All I saw was a Bob Marley album and I believe a Miles Davis? Were there others?
–Last note. In the bottom half of the draft, NFL commish Roger Goodell announced that Las Vegas certainly deserves to host the NFL Draft it was robbed of this April, so that he was happy to announce that Las Vegas “will host the 2020 NFL Draft.” Listen, I don’t expect you to get everything right, but at $43 million a year, Rog, I have less patience for these types of errors.
Circumnavigate Notre Dame Stadium and you will spot statues erected to Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz. The school’s next coaching statue, to be situated outside the Purcell Center, should be built to display Muffet McGraw.
McGraw, 64, retired yesterday. She departs after 33 years of service, two national championships (the latter providing the most thrilling moment in Notre Dame sports history in decades) and five more championship game appearances. If Geno Auriemma, her old summer camp counselor colleague from the Cathy Rush camps in the early ’70s, did not exist, she might have won five national titles (and lost about 20 fewer games from her career 905-272 record).
Niele Ivey, the point guard from McGraw’s 2001 national championship squad, will be the school’s new head coach.
Taylor, Swift
Those are the surnames of the most highly coveted running backs in tonight’s NFL Draft. The problem is that it’s the year 2020 and running backs of any ilk have almost gone the way of the fullback or the sitcom. There’s a chance that neither are taken in the first round.
De’Andre Swift is the latest gem from the Athens stable that extends all the way back to Herschel and includes Georgia grinders Garrison Hearst, Terrell Davis, Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb. Jonathan Taylor’s alma mater, Wisconsin, can count the NCAA’s all-time rushing leader, Ron Dayne, Montee Ball and Melvin Gordon in just the past quarter-century along with all-timers Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch and Alan Ameche.
Dayne graduated with 7,125 rushing yards in four seasons. Taylor departs school after just three years with 6,174 yards. He’s No. 6 all-time. If he’d chosen to remain in Madison and stayed healthy, he’d surely be the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher after a senior season.
The Commish
Island-wise, Tom Selleck has hopped from Oahu to Manhattan (and, presumably, Staten Island). He has gone from being a Hawaiian shirt-and-shorts Reagan era private investigator to a suited top cop in the nation’s largest city whose name is Reagan.
He’s the patriarch in Blue Bloods (though his pops, who’s played by an actor just six years older than he in real life, is still around and was formerly the NYPD commish). If you haven’t watched Blue Bloods, your mom or grandparents have. I guarantee it. It’s actually been on since 2010 and also stars Boston-area emigres Donnie Wahlberg (who is married to Jenny McCarthy, in case you forgot) and Bridget Moynihan (who is married to my best ballplayer at Camp Winaukee in the summer of 1987).
Anyway, it’s no Law & Order, but it passes muster and is shot on the streets of NYC, so the authenticity is there… unlike some crime shows from the past decade we could mention, such as Castle.
Sweet Jane
What Nelson Mandela was to the anti-apartheid movement, what Mother Teresa was to caring for the sickest and most poverty-stricken anywhere, Jane Goodall is to animal-rights activism. She is a secular saint.
Now 86, the British-born Goodall is still globe-trotting on behalf of all creatures great and small. She is truly one of the most remarkable and inspiring humans on this or any planet—and belongs atop the list of our Aptly Named People club.
We’re big fans here at MH and National Geographic has a new film out titled, “Jane Goodall: The Hope.” Maybe we should see it when it is released.
Sports Year 1879
In college football, the Michigan Wolverines are founded and schadenfreude is introduced to American sports… James Prinsep, 17 years and 252 days old, makes his international football debut for Clapham Rovers. It will be his only appearance. Prinsep will be the youngest international footballer for England for more than a century until his mark is broken in 2003 by an impudent teen by the name of Wayne Rooney… the Providence Grays win the National League pennant… Baseball creates the first reserve clause, as all teams agree (collude) that every team gets five players to list that no other team will touch… John L. Sullivan turns pro and wins his first five bouts…
Two of the most acclaimed boxers of the year, John Dwyer and Paddy Ryan, get involved in a bar room brawl in New York City (before there were the Fighting Irish, there were the fighting Irish)… Jamie Anderson, age 37, wins his third consecutive British Open (and his last). Anderson’s da was the greenskeeper at the Old Course in St. Andrews, where he was born, and also sold lemonade and tea out of a cart there.
Only 47 NFL mock drafts to be compiled between now and tomorrow’s actual NFL draft. At our new job earlier this week we spoke to the mom of an Oregon offensive lineman who’s believed to be a 2nd- or 3rd-round talent. She ordered him a tomahawk steak (it’s just a ribeye with the rib still attached) to celebrate. That’s our NFL Insider report.
Players we LOVE: Auburn DT Derrick Brown, Clemson LB/SS Isaiah Simmons, Texas WR Devin Duvernay (he’s in nobody’s first round and few people’s second rounds; catches everything but the coronavirus). Prefer Jerry Jeudy to CeeDee Lamb as we wonder about the respective defensive talent both men faced (and recall that Lamb missed the first OU game versus Baylor) and while we like Tua, he’s a sub-6′ QB who’s already suffered two major “lower body” injuries before his 22nd birthday. No thanks.
Still a little surprised by the plethora of wideouts slated higher than 6’4″-plus Chase Claypool. There’s a lot of talent in this year’s class (Lamb, Jeudy, Ruggs, Reagor, Higgins, Pittman, Aiyuk, etc.) but Claypool is too big, too fast and has too good a set of hands not to go in the first two rounds. Maybe our blue-and-gold tinted glasses are showing.
Gronk Buc Bonk
Me Gronk. Me like Tom. Tom is Buc. Me play with Tom. Me play for Bucs. Bonk!
What The Fox Says
Last Sunday on his weekly HBO program, Last Week Tonight, now broadcasting as he says from “a blank white void,” John Oliver devoted the entire 21-plus minutes to Fox News’ misinformation campaign. As CNN’s Chri Cillizza, who wrote about the episode said, there are 11 words about Fox New that stood out in Oliver’s presentation:
“They only pretend to believe these things on television for money.”
Eggs-actly.
Watch the episode if you have the time. And you have the time.
Harold and Lillian
We came home from the salt-and-pepper mines last Friday and our roommate was gushing about this film she’d just seen on TCM. It was a documentary from 2015 titled Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story.
Harold and Lillian Michelson, the titular subjects of the doc, were a much in-demand couple who were, respectively, a storyboard artist and a researcher. Their work is all over some of the most iconic scenes and films of the past 60 years, which is also how long they were married.
You can rent the entire doc on YouTube for $3.99. The trailer is above. It’s supposed to be very good and how many Marvel movies can you millennials watch, anyway?
Sports Year 1878
Employees of the Lancaster & Yorkshire Railway found the Newton Heath Cricket & Football Club, which is known today as Manchester United… Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter meet on the football field for the first time. It will become the nation’s oldest high school football rivalry… The Wright Brothers lead the Red Caps to their sixth championship in the past seven years, across two leagues and a pair of cities (Cincy, Boston)… The Harvard-Yale regatta is moved to its permanent location, the Thames River (mispronounced by Yanks) in New London, Conn… At an international exposition in Paris, the Norwegian delegation presents a self-propulsion tool that is well-known in Scandinavia but not so much in the center of culture: a pair of skis. A number of attendees purchase sets. Mountaineer and author Henry Duhamel is one such buyer and he soon becomes the first known person to experiment with them in the Alps. The apres ski lodge is invented 5 hours later.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, and in a strange way I don’t know if the planet has been in better shape, or at least trending that way, since 1970. Traffic is down. Air traffic is waaaaaaay down. The skies are cleaner. Sea tortoise hatchlings are making their way from nests to the surf having only to worry about predatory birds and not Instagramming millennials (I stuck that in just for you, Jacob).
Seems to me that a clean Earth and 21st century man, to this date, are at odds with one another. It’s kind of like that person who knows they need to lose 20 pounds but damn, hat In-N-Out drive-thru is right there and the line of cars is only in the single digits.
And then along comes the coronavirus. Kinda like how a terrible fever or flu makes you lose 8 pounds in one week and you think, Well, that was hell, but I can finally fit into those skinny jeans I bought back in 2006. That’s what the coronavirus is, writ large. Will we pay attention?
(Well, this White House won’t, but hopefully some American leader will soon be as enlightened as Trudeau or Macron or Merkel). To quote the eternal Joni Mitchell:
We are stardust We are golden (We are billion year-old carbon*) And we’ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden
*The parenthetical added by CSN for their version
Mission Kim-possible
Did the season finale of Better Call Saul leave you a little empty? Skeptical? Confused?
Let’s get Lalo’s Great Escape out of the way early. Yes, it’s Houdini-esque and brilliant and he knows who set him up. Nacho is simply a pawn. I was wondering, as the two men drank beers out by the fire pit —night owl Lalo unintentionally preventing Nacho’s 3 a.m. back-gate exit—if Nacho would simply come clean with him and take his chances. Would Lalo have forgiven Nacho for what he did to his tio, Hector, if Nacho had redeemed himself by squealing on Fring and thereby saving Lalo from the assassination attempt? Did it even go through his mind, or did he know he’d be a dead man, either via Fring or the Salamancas, for doing so? Either way, I think Gus could’ve found a better wet squad than this. Does he even watch Seal Team 6, Sundays on CBS?
Now let’s get to Kim. Nothing in her DNA suggests she’d go this far to take down an innocent man and ruin his career, which is what she’s suggesting to a skeptical Jimmy that they do to Howard. Even Jimmy thinks this is beyond the pale, at least he does in the privacy of the swanky hotel room (with a second bed to put all your crap on… I used to love having a second bed when I traveled for work to use as my storage space).
So what’s the game here? What is happening and what do the writers want us to think is happening, to distract us? And how much should we glean from that show intro/flashback a few episodes back where tween Kim is pissed at her mom for showing up late to pick her up from band practice at school and also being inebriated?
From that vignette I gleaned (maybe I’m wrong?) that Kim is stubborn and that she does not suffer bad actors with any patience. But yet she endures Jimmy week after week? Is love that blind? Is that the paradox we’re supposed to be seeing?
Or, OR, does Kim see setting up Howard and reaping a $2 million instant windfall as a means to pursue her true legal passion, being a pro bono defender? Or, OR, is that simply a front for her to gain access into the cartel underworld so that she can accomplish an even bigger mission, taking out the cartel… and if Howard has to be an innocent victim in all of that, so be it? Or, OR, is it something else?
Because here’s what we know. When Howard says to Kim, “You know who really knew Jimmy? Chuck,” she knows he’s right. And maybe that triggered her. But for all the shenanigans Kim has pulled, with Mesa Verde and with getting Huell out of hot water and even with the bar fly d-bags, she’s never gone this far off the reservation. And she’s never deliberately set out to harm an innocent man. And Howard never treated her poorly. He’s been square with everyone. Maybe a country club pretty boy, but not an evil sort.
We’ll see. But the idea of Kim descending into a life of amoral activity… sorry, just don’t see it.
And by the way, it might just be that some TV reviewers are so blind in their adoration of Rhea Seehorn that they whiff on some of these calls. I mean, I get it. I did a profile of her for Newsweek back in Season 1 of the show. But some of these critics adore Rhea/Kim so much that I begin to question their objectivity or critical thinking when it comes to her character. Because, on the surface, nothing she’s done the past two weeks is on the up and up.
I don’t think Kim is “breaking bad,” as Alan Sepinwall suggests. I think when she said to Jimmy, “It’s not going to happen again,” and yet he stayed at the foot of the bed that she realized that he’s not quite ready to give up the glory, the money and the sizzle of being a “friend of the cartel.” And I think just maybe she’s decided that the only way to combat him, and in effect to save him, is to battle the cartel indirectly as a pro bono defender who learns their operation from that side of it. Maybe? No?
Meet Ron
As much as you love Will Ferrell, you’re going to love him even more after watching this clip if you haven’t seen it before. There’s a very wise man inside that kooky character.
Carry On
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and start YouTube’ing classic rock? I don’t, I’m just asking. I mean, WHO would do that?
And I mean, I’m glad that you don’t —because I certainly wouldn’t—but if you did, would you scroll down and read the comments? And if so, would you perhaps come across a comment such as this from “Tackless”:
About 25 years ago a group of us construction workers were on an elevator coming down from a top floor in a high-rise. David Crosby got on a few floors later. we all recognize him and everybody started whispering that’s David Crosby . I watched him smile at the recognition. He got off a few floors before the bottom and when he did I held the door so it wouldn’t close and I let him walk a few steps before I yelled YO ! He turned around and I said don’t forget to tell your wife you were on the elevator with Tom Bradford today. He looked at me and cracked up . He said that’s good my friend, I’ll make sure I do that.
Sports Year 1877
The inaugural Lawn Tennis Championship is held at the All England Lawn & Tennis Club in Wimbledon, south London. Only a men’s singles event is held and Spencer Gore defeats William Marshall, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Both men are British.
Pitcher Jim Devlin of the Louisville Grays and three teammates are permanently expelled from the National League after they are found to have conspired with gamblers to lose games (Devlin led the league in Losses in both 1876 and 1877). #ItsAllBeenDone
Future world champion John L. Sullivan, arguably the first iconic pugilist, wins his first bout as an amateur in Boston via first-round knockout.
The Montreal Gazette publishes the first formal hockey rules.
The annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race ends in a dead heat and there is no video review to settle the matter.
The first intercollegiate lacrosse match, between NYU and Manhattan College, is staged.
Yale wins its first college football national championship, finishing 3-0-1 (the tie was against Princeton, in Hoboken).
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