by John Walters

Starting Five

No Pick!*

The judges will also accept “Pick and Roll Tide”

Pick:

No Pick:

Pick:

No Pick! No Pick!

2. Hunter Gatherer

Clemson’s 5’11 former walk-on wideout Hunter Renfrow, who scored the championship-winning TD last night, now has 17 catches and four touchdowns against the Crimson Tide in the past calendar year. Thirteen of the Tide’s 14 non-Clemson opponents in the past calendar year failed to score four touchdowns.

A reminder that Renfrow was not offered a single FBS scholarship out of high school. Something to remember when National Signing Day is upon up in 22 days.

Mike Williams, another Clemson wide out, is 6’3″ and will probably be chose in the top 20 picks in the upcoming NFL draft. And he deserves to be. And, more importantly, Williams’ two mighty, sky-walking fourth-quarter grabs last night were probably more decisive than any two catches Renfrow made. It’s just going to be interesting to see what happens with Renfrow, who also made a tackle on a Clemson fumble that saved a touchdown early in the third quarter, when his college career ends.

3. Meaningless But Fun

FCS Samford (Birmingham, Ala.) beat FCS Central Arkansas

FCS Central Arkansas beat Arkansas State

Arkansas State beat Texas State

Texas State beat Ohio

Ohio beat Kansas

Kansas beat Texas

Texas beat Baylor

Baylor beat Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State beat Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh beat Clemson (43-42)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_VhQt5gKS4

So by the ultra-transitive property, a team from Alabama defeated Clemson, so the Crimson Tide may as well add another natty to its list. By the way, recall that North Carolina State missed a game-winning 33-yard field goal in October in Death Valley. Granted, if I had to bet, I’d predict Clemson would’ve run the table after that presumed loss and beaten Pitt, but we’ll never know, will we?

4. At Tritt’s End

Travis Tritt Treets:

Yesterday:

 

Advice to all actors, musicians and entertainers: Please stick to your crafts that we all love you for and drop the political rhetoric.

— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) January 9, 2017

And this was Travis Tritt 51 weeks ago:

 

In the upcoming election, I will be voting for the ABC candidate (Anybody But Clinton)! She is a lying troll who isn’t good for America!

— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) January 15, 2016

It ain’t about whether you agree or disagree with Tritt on the tweet directly above. It’s about fighting the “War on Hypocrisy!” (How’s that one going, Sean Hannity?). For example, can you believe Kellyanne said this yesterday referring to someone who dared to stand up to her boss?

“I’m concerned that someone with a platform like Meryl Streep is also inciting people’s worst instincts.” That’s good, Kellyanne! You are good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilMkBavpVPE

5. Pay ‘Em? (More?)

So last week Ray Glier, who is a terrific reporter for The New York Times, asked as many playoff-bound college football players as he could what they do with their monthly cost-of-attendance stipend of just under $400.

He received replies from fewer than a dozen players, all of whom spend their money on responsible things like rent, car repairs, sending $$ home to parents or even buying stuff for the homeless. Cool. Apparently, the “Pay ‘Em!” crowd (my friend Jason McIntyre at The Big Lead introduced Glier’s piece in his daily Roundup by writing “To the few dolts who don’t think college football players should be paid, read how they spend their “stipend.”) believes that those of us who don’t believe they should be paid (more) assume they’re all going to use the money for spinning rims or bling or ice or Yeezy’s because you know, we’re all closet racists with a plantation mentality.

Item: What someone uses their income on should never have any impact on how much they are paid. That’s like saying of two sportswriters, one who’s married with three kids and the other who’s single, that the former deserves to be paid more because she buys more Gerber products. Why you’d make that your “Pay Them (More)” argument is asinine.

Item: College football players already are paid. You may have noticed the item dealt with the fact that these players receive checks of $388 per month. That is income. That is payment. They also receive free educations. If you think they should be paid MORE, that’s fine. But that’s the issue. Not that they are not paid at all. By continually saying they should be paid, you are either being intellectually dishonest (read: disingenuous) because it doesn’t help your argument or you’re just not very bright.

Item: Glier spoke with less than 12 players. About 10,000 young men play FBS football. Just something to remember.

Item: As far as I know, any college football player at an FBS school is eligible for free housing all four years he’s at that school (I’m not 100% positive on this, but I think so). Moving off campus and getting your own crib, for which you’d have to pay rent, is a discretionary spending move. No one is forcing these players to do that and pay rent. They make that choice.

Item: Most of us didn’t have a pet in college because we 1) didn’t have the time and 2) didn’t have the money to take care of one. I’m all for pets, and I’m all for players having them if they treat them well, but again, this is discretionary use of income.

Item: Same for vehicles. When you’re a college student.

You’re welcome to believe college football players should be paid MORE THAN THEY ALREADY RECEIVE. That’s a debatable topic, because I feel that most sportswriters that espouse this haven’t looked far down the road to explore the Law of Unintentional Consequences here. But that’s another matter.

As I’ve written before, when 100% of the people you make an offer to accept it (Hello, National Signing Day), there’s very little incentive to sweeten the offer. And when about 3% of the personnel playing college football make it to the NFL, the deal as is for the other 97% is far better than if it didn’t exist.

Yes, but colleges and ESPN and FOX are reaping billions off their labor. They DESERVE to be paid more, you say. Maybe. So go on strike. In the adult world, “deserve” and “fair” have very little to do with anything. It’s a lesson one should learn earlier rather than later.

Music 101

Vienna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DuCIGvsbMA

The British New Wave act Ultravox was almost too New Wave, as if the barrier to entry to even listen to them required a black trench coat, military boots and eyeliner (You weren’t around in the early Eighties, but this was an actual thing; they were called “Mods”). The song spent four weeks at No. 2 in the UK in the winter of 1981, held off at No. 1 by John Lennon’s “Woman” (he’d been murdered a month earlier) and then for three weeks by the novelty hit, “Shaddup You Face,” proving that listeners had poor taste then, too.

Remote Patrol

President Obama’s Farewell Address

CBS, NBC, ABC, etc. 9 pm.

Watch it with your favorite Deplorable.