Category: Touchdown Wire

Where do oddmakers think Tom Brady will be playing in 2020?

When it comes to speculation and Patriots QB Tom Brady. There have been plenty of analyses by NFL experts but who knows?

When it comes to speculation and Patriots QB Tom Brady, what’s his plan, man? There have been plenty of analyses by NFL personnel, experts, insiders and all the rest, but who knows?

Las Vegas oddsmakers sure think they do and there’s a clear-cut favorite: Surprise! It’s the Patriots.

In the latest odds from BetOnline, you can wager that Brady, for less than even money (which means it’s almost a lock), will return to New England.

That seems like a safe bet at this point.

What team will be Tom Brady be on Week 1 of the 2020 Regular Season?

New England Patriots                10/13

Tennessee Titans                           5/1

Las Vegas Raiders                        6/1

Los Angeles Chargers                  6/1

Indianapolis Colts                        9/1

San Francisco 49ers                   10/1

Tampa Bay Buccaneers             12/1

Chicago Bears                           20/1

Dallas Cowboys                        25/1

Miami Dolphins                        33/1

 

You can also bet on who the Patriots’ starting QB will be to open the season if it’s not Brady. Bridgewater would be fun and you can envision Mariota in a Pats uniform, can’t ya? Plus, Belichick and coaches would probably get the most out of him than any team in the league.

Patriots QB Week 1 of the 2020 Regular Season (If not Brady)

Teddy Bridgewater                    3/1

Ryan Tannehill                          7/2

Marcus Mariota                         5/1

Andy Dalton                              6/1

Jarrett Stidham                          7/1

Derek Carr                                 8/1

Jimmy Garoppolo                    10/1

Nick Foles                                14/1

Philip Rivers                            14/1

Dak Prescott                             20/1

Jameis Winston                        20/1

Joe Flacco                                25/1

Cody Kessler                           33/1

 

 

Princeton students ‘disappointed’ Marshawn Lynch chosen as ‘Class Day’ speaker

Several Princeton college students protested the selection of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch as the school’s Class Day speaker in June by writing an op-ed in the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian.

Several Princeton college students protested the selection of Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch as the school’s Class Day speaker in June by writing an op-ed in the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian:

To the Class Day Co-Chairs,

We wish to express our thoughts on the choice of the Class Day speaker for 2020 and propose improvements that could be made to the speaker selection process. As seniors, we had been looking forward to the speaker announcement for months. Many of us were disappointed when we saw that this year’s speaker was to be Marshawn Lynch, mainly because we did not feel included in the process by which this speaker was nominated and finally selected.

It goes without saying that Lynch has had an incredibly impressive career as an NFL football player and as a social activist. He has given back to his home community of Oakland through many philanthropic activities and has organized football clinics around the world. However, saying that Lynch has “unapologetically embodied and advocated for our own identities and values” (as stated in the University’s official Instagram post) without actually consulting us, the Princeton community is paradoxical and thus questionable. We do not mean to criticize this choice of speaker in particular, but rather want to call attention to the opaque selection process for Class Day speakers.

No response yet from Lynch, a five-time Pro Bowler who is set to become a free agent March 18.

You can read the students’ entire letter here.

 

 

The 24 men who have worked in the Monday Night Football booth

(Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images) With Tony Romo spurning Monday Night Football to sign a $180 million deal with CBS, ESPN is again looking for ways to improve its booth. Could it be Peyton Manning? Kurt Warner? Someone else? Whoever winds up with the …

(Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

With Tony Romo spurning Monday Night Football to sign a $180 million deal with CBS, ESPN is again looking for ways to improve its booth.

Could it be Peyton Manning? Kurt Warner? Someone else?

Whoever winds up with the job will become part of one of the most venerable institutions in sports. Monday Night Football has aired for 50 seasons, broadcasting more than 700 games.

Twenty-three different men have worked in the booth since 1970. Here’s a look at a group that ranges from a comedian to Hall of Fame quarterbacks and a guy that was in Blazing Saddles.

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See the election-themed T-shirt Julian Edelman is selling to keep Tom Brady a Patriot

Patriots star Julian Edelman is selling election-style T-shirts in hopes his marketing move helps keep teammate/great friend Tom Brady stay with New England for the upcoming season. Check out the slogan and shirt: New England is a Tomocracy. …

Patriots star Julian Edelman is selling election-style T-shirts in hopes his marketing move helps keep teammate/great friend Tom Brady stay with New England for the upcoming season.

Check out the slogan and shirt:

At a college basketball game Saturday at Syracuse University, Edelman, sitting courtside next to Brady, seemed to mouth to a camera: “He’s coming back, he’s coming back.”

Brady gave Edelman a glance and smile (Or was it, ‘Not cool, dude’?)

Take a look for yourself at this viral video.

Whatever your take, Edelman’s friendly clothing gesture may not matter.

Brady is a free agent for the first time in his career after completing his 20th season in New England. Nobody is quite sure what the NFL legend is going to do, but a Boston.com columnist made his prediction Sunday on the QB’s possible return to the Pats with his opinion piece under this headline:

“Tom Brady isn’t coming back to the Patriots, so why are we still playing this game like he is?”

And Just Blog Baby.com adds: “The Las Vegas Raiders are in the conversation of acquiring six-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, and the rumors have heated up during the Combine.”

Uh, oh, Julian. Your good buddy may be moving away, but the T-shirts can’t hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brees will march back to lead Saints in 2020

Drew Brees announces he’ll march back to lead Saints in 2020

Good news for New Orleans Saints fans: Drew Brees isn’t retiring and will return for the 2020 season.

The 41-year-old, who’s the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards but has suffered a pair of painful postseason losses the last two years, posted on Instagram to say he wants to “Make another run at it.” Which means a second Super Bowl win for his career and the Saints franchise.

What Brees’ news probably means is that Saints backup quarterbacks, Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill, both could be gone by next season, especially since Hill thinks he’s a franchise QB and Bridgewater is an unrestricted free agent who helped the Saints go 5-0 in 2019 while Brees was injured

But the sense is that Saints will do what it takes to keep Hill which means Bridgewater will likely be playing elsewhere in 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

See the sweet tweet and pics as NFL star JJ Watt marries pro soccer star

See the sweet tweet and pics as NFL star JJ Watt marries pro soccer star.

It’s been a great start to 2020 for Houston Texans star JJ Watt.

Yeah, so he didn’t get to play in the Super Bowl, but he hosted “Saturday Night Live” on Super Bowl Eve and he got married to women’s pro soccer star Kealia Ohai on Saturday in the Bahamas.

Not bad.

In fact, Watt tweeted:

It has been a very busy few weeks for the Watt family as reported here.

Good on ya, JJ.

(Small side note: Ohai’s father was one of my high school teachers and football coaches and one of the genuine nice guys, so what the heck, huh? Hi, Ben. Congrats to you and your family!)

Taysom Hill thinks he’s a franchise QB; former Saints coach says he’s a better passer than Lamar Jackson

The Saints’ explosive weapon Taysom Hill has suddenly become one of the most intriguing free agents of the offseason.
Is he the next Tim Tebow or the next Lamar Jackson?

Taysom Hill: Franchise quarterback?

The multi-faceted New Orleans Saints player sure thinks he is:

In his interview with the Associated Press, he told Maddi: “As you go into free agency, this is the time you start to find out how people view you. We haven’t gotten far enough into free agency to know how these guys view me and we’ll just handle it as it comes.”

The 29-year-old former BYU quarterback has made a remarkable journey from injury-plagued college player to versatile NFL weapon for the Saints.

Hill told Maaddi during the interview, which was held during Super Bowl week, he would rather stay in New Orleans, where all three of its quarterbacks are headed into free agency this offseason, although Hill is a restricted free agent. Future Hall of Famer Drew Brees and his backup Teddy Bridgewater are unrestricted free agents.

Nobody seems sure if Brees, 41, will retire. That includes Hill, who described Brees “one of my best friends and like a brother to me.”

Hill told Maadi, “As you look at free agency, you have to find the right opportunity for you. You have to find the situation to take care of your family. I want to play quarterback in this league, and if New Orleans doesn’t view me that way, I have to leave.”

Saints coach Sean Peyton told NBC Sports’ Peter King that he believes Hill will get an offer sheet from another team but also seemed to remain uncommitted to Hill, saying:

“But the first thing the fan has to understand is … if we tender Taysom as a one (meaning the Saints put a first-round draft tag on him), the team that makes the offer on him and signs him to an offer understands they’re going to give up a first-round pick if we don’t match,” Payton told King. “That’s easier to do if you’re picking 22, 23, 24, 25. We might very well see it if it’s a team in the second half of the (first round).”

Hill has attempted just 13 passes in his NFL career, completing six, although it’s clear he’s speedy and got good moves, and one former Saints coach thinks he might become as good a dual-threat as current NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.

Mike Westhoff, who served as a special-teams coordinator with the Saints in 2017 and 2018, praised Hill’s skills in a January interview with Zach Gelb of CBS Sports Radio.

“Take a look at Baltimore,” Westhoff said when discussing Hill’s skill set. “It’s the same kind of guy. Taysom Hill does those same kind of things. I think he throws better.”

“If you don’t think Taysom Hill is a future star in the NFL, you haven’t been paying close enough attention to him,” Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk said recently. “He was the best player on the field for either team in the Saints-Vikings playoff game. The biggest question is can he stay healthy if used all the time?”

So, yeah, Taysom Hill has suddenly become one of the most intriguing free agents of this offseason.

Is he the next Tim Tebow or the next Lamar Jackson?

 

Ex-NFL player Matthew Cherry won an Oscar for animated short film — and predicted it 8 years ago

On Sunday at the Academy Awards, Matthew Cherry became just the second pro athlete to win an Oscar for “Hair Love.” The late Kobe Bryant won one in 2018 with his animated short “Dear Basketball.”

Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver who had exactly zero receptions during his career as he bounced around from team to team, reinvented himself and the reward for that was an actual award, a big shiny gold one on Sunday: An Oscar for the animated short film “Hair Love.”

Cherry wrote and directed the short, about an African-American father attempting to style his young daughter’s hair for the first time.

The film was produced after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign and was also released as a children’s book in May 2019, with illustrations by Vashti Harrison.

Cherry becomes just the second pro athlete to win an Oscar. The late Kobe Bryant won one in 2018 with his animated short “Dear Basketball.”

“’Hair Love’ was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation,” Cherry said after accepting the award with Sony Pictures Animation executive Karen Rupert Toliver. “We wanted to normalize black hair. There’s a very important issue that’s out there, the CROWN Act, and if we can help to get this passed in all 50 states, it will help stories like DeAndre Arnold’s — who is our special guest tonight — stop to happen.”

The reference to Arnold, who attended the Oscars as Cherry’s guest, is this:

The speech was powerful and, naturally, included a shout-out to Kobe.

Cherry called his shot back in 2012. How confident is that?

You can watch the Oscar-winning short film below.

Finally, here are Cherry’s sweet tweets after the ceremony:

 

 

Five familiar names football fans will recognize on XFL rosters

For fans already jonesing for pro football action, the XFL season begins Saturday, Feb. 8. Here are five, whether they fared well in college or showed glimpses in the NFL, players that will ring a bell: Landry Jones, QB, Dallas Renegades (Charles …

For fans already jonesing for pro football action, the XFL season begins Saturday, Feb. 8.

Here are five, whether they fared well in college or showed glimpses in the NFL, players that will ring a bell:

Landry Jones, QB, Dallas Renegades

(Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

Jones, a former star at Oklahoma under Renegades head coach Bob Stoops, was the first player to sign with the XFL. Jones, the former backup to Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh, will likely miss the season’s first four to six weeks with a knee injury suffered earlier this month.

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