Day 778

• Another indication sports are basically completely impossible without crime.  Boris Becker has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in a German prison.  Money laundering, bankruptcy asset evasion.  So what ELSE do we now know about, Mr. Becker??   
• Anyone who thinks the Packers had a bad Draft last night don't get it.  That was as much of a give up as the Love pick was...  They are NOT going to the Super Bowl:  Now, soon, or perhaps ever again.  Brady for the now, the urban big-money realities of the NFL for the rest.
• And that goes double for Tennessee.  You win in the NFL (in kayfabe) through the air and stopping through the air.  No team in this reality is going to win a Super Bowl when it's only relevant and marketable player plays running back.  So a big-money soon-to-be FA WR who Tennessee knows they are not going to pay basically gets traded as a salary dump.  And then FIVE MINUTES LATER, the Eagles announce 4 years $100 million to keep him.
  
• Tonight is probably going to be the fourth NBA Playoff PETA protest against the owner of the Timberwolves for slaughtering chickens to prevent the wholesale obliteration of meat in this country.
• You want the reality of the NFL right now?  Here you go:

1. First five picks were all anti-pass defense.
2. The next seven picks and 12 of the next 14 were either pass protection or wide receivers.
3. First round quarterbacks?  ONE.  And it was an obvious and correct call for Pittsburgh to take one, so no complaint on that.
4. Nine of the final 12 were defense, the other 3 O-line.
5. Want evidence of that Tennessee comment?  Number of first-round running backs this year?  ZERO.  ESPN has only two RB's graded in the top EIGHTY. 

• And to tell you how much I haven't been watching Jeopardy! lately...  We have our FOURTH ultrachamp of the season!  The biggest winner in the history of the show from Canada, Mattea Roach, a tutor from Toronto -- though pushed hard last night!! -- won their eighteenth game Thursday night and now has the sixth-highest winning total in the history of regular play on the program:  $438,183.
• Their average is $24,344.  Because of the low average, Andy Saunders' metrics have the streak ending on any given game now (I think the average is somewhere between 21 and 22).
• Their main strength is Daily Doubles:  22-4 in those.
• 12-6 in Final.
• The post-Mania cuts are starting.  10 NXT talents, most prominently Dakota Kai, were cut today.
• First no-hitter of the season -- five Mets pitchers combine to no-no the Phillies -- six walks, but no hits in the 3-0 Mets win.  Edwin Diaz (dammit, I can't call him Edlose tonight, can I??) struck out the side in the ninth to finish it.
  
• Mattea Roach pushed again, but rock solid in Final tonight as well, and it's nineteen for the Toronto tutor -- another $22,001, $460,184 total.