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Good morning! Imagine the Jets being normal. I can’t.
Quick Math: Aaron Rodgers’ latest gambit
Despite a joke I made last week, I don’t at all want this to be a politics newsletter. And yet Aaron Rodgers bids us so:
- Yesterday, The New York Times reported that outsider presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made overtures to the Jets quarterback to be his running mate for this November’s presidential election. Rodgers hasn’t commented, but the two have apparently gone hiking together. The Jets QB and former pro wrestler/Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura are at the top of Kennedy’s list.
- Here’s what I’m most curious about: Could Rodgers technically do this? Campaign season ramps up around July, which happens to be when NFL training camps open. Per the Washington Post, both Kamala Harris (36 in-person events and more than 50 online events during quarantine) and Mike Pence (63 in-person events) were extremely busy as running mates in 2020. There’s no way Rodgers could keep a fraction of that pace and play starting quarterback for the Jets.
I cannot imagine a scenario in which Rodgers tries to seriously do both, and now we find ourselves in a familiar spot: wondering if Rodgers has been mixed up in something just for attention. I’ll think along that route until proved wrong.
Teammate Sauce Gardner joked that this must be why Rodgers hasn’t been replying to his texts. Every time Jets fans wonder whether the Rodgers era can get any weirder, it does.
News to Know
Payne likely done
Louisville is primed to fire coach Kenny Payne after just two seasons, according to multiple reports, a sad and expected end to what could’ve been a great marriage. Payne was a legendary player at Louisville, but it is difficult to imagine a worse coaching tenure at a powerhouse program than going 12-52 overall and 5-35 in ACC play. Kyle Tucker has a full debrief.
Prescott alleges extortion
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is suing a woman who accused him of sexual assault, saying the woman attempted to extort him. The case revolves around an alleged 2017 encounter between Prescott and the woman, who — per Prescott’s suit — said she was filing to forgo charges in exchange for $100 million. See more details here.
NHL may return to Atlanta after all
A group led by former NHL player and current TNT commentator Anson Carter formally requested the league to consider an expansion team in Atlanta, a place the league has left twice before. Carter’s proposal already includes the support of officials in suburban Alpharetta, Ga. An Atlanta hockey reunion has been in the works for years, actually, with a better system in place for expansion teams now. My biggest question: Will they be the Thrashers again?
More news
NFL Free Agency, Round 2: The market slows (a little)
We had a decent breather after Monday’s free-agency blitz. Two deals I think are important:
- Defensive end Danielle Hunter — the top free agent on the market after Monday — agreed to a two-year, $49 million deal with the Texans, who coincidentally lost DE Jonathan Greenard to Minnesota, Hunter’s former team. Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. on the same defensive line is nasty. Also, I thought the 29-year-old Hunter would get more money, to be honest.
- Derrick Henry will be a Baltimore Raven after agreeing to a two-year, $16 million contract. If Henry is healthy, the Ravens offense will be even scarier than last year’s unit. Henry has made four Pro Bowls and rushed for 1,000 yards last season at 29. You just have to worry about wear on a guy who’s averaged more than 300 carries a season in the last five years.
Those of course weren’t the only deals of the day. Make sure to visit our running live blog for the latest, including an intriguing roundup of some big-name backup QB moves. And don’t miss Scoop City later this morning.
Soul Searching: The women’s hoops star you don’t know
No one deserved a year off more than Abbey Hsu.
Take a look at Hsu today and you’d think she has her life in order. She’s 22, about to graduate from Columbia and has been the Ivy League’s best basketball player for two years straight. Her Lions are favored to win the Ivy League tournament and, even if they falter, an at-large bid is still likely.
It wasn’t always that pretty, as Brian Hamilton writes in a moving feature today. In a two-year span, Hsu:
- Survived the Parkland shooting while a junior at Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018
- Moved 1,200 miles away from home to enroll at Columbia
- Endured the death of her father, Alex Hsu, the first medical professional in Florida to die of COVID-19
So, as the world shut down, Hsu ran. She ventured across the country with her girlfriend, searching for some other meaning in life besides school and basketball. As Brian details in the story, she found it — and came back a better player, too.
I’ll be rooting for Hsu and the Lions come tourney time if they make it. Read Brian’s story, and you probably will be, too.
Watch This Game
Soccer: Inter Milan at Atlético Madrid
4 p.m. on Paramount+
We are onto the final second-leg matches now after yesterday’s bangers. Milan leads 1-0 on aggregate. I love the tension in these games.
NBA: Cavaliers at Pelicans
8 p.m. ET on Bally Sports
West No. 5 New Orleans is arguably the NBA’s hottest — and deepest — team, while Cleveland is impressively hanging onto third place in the Eastern Conference though Donovan Mitchell is out. This could be an inflection point for both teams.
Pulse Picks
How do you sum up Kirk Cousins’ six years in Minnesota? It’s complicated, Alec Lewis writes.
On Cousins: Nick Baumgardner plots out a new NFL mock draft after Cousins’ relocation. Hello, J.J. McCarthy.
Jeff Howe came away with a nicely reported piece on how the most important free-agent QB contracts fell into place. It’s all a game of musical chairs.
John Hollinger breaks down the NBA prospects in this weekend’s conference tournaments. Useful.
Ken Rosenthal tells us the latest on trade talks between the White Sox and Rangers for starter Dylan Cease. The defending champs could use Cease immediately.
Andrew Marchand talked to Peyton Manning about joining Olympics coverage, trying to hire Bill Belichick and more. Interesting conversation.
We are still recovering from the NHL trade deadline. Shayna Goldman has seven post-deadline storylines to get excited about.
Most-read on the site yesterday: Grading the good, bad and ugly of every NFL free agency deal.
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(Photo: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images)
