Day 811

• And now (and I'm not even sure which side is proffering this conspiracy theory), someone has come forward with a conspiracy theory that some of the kids in Uvalde, TX were shot by the cops themselves.
• As tempting as it appears to be, I can't go that far.  I have said, and maintain, that the cops did aid and abet the shooter for maximum kill count of the children not their own.  But I still maintain that as a passive act, not an active one.  
• Marion Barber III, another sacrifice to football.  He was 38.  After retiring in 2011, he was taken for a psychiatric examination in 2014 and had a run-in with the law in 2019.  Can you say...  C.  T.  E???  I knew you could! 
  
• The 23rd woman to sue DeShaun Watson for sexual misconduct has come forward.
• Today is the long-awaited beginning of the Ukraine-Scotland-Wales UEFA World Cup Qualifier pod.  Ukraine's team goes to Scotland for a match, the winner goes to Wales Sunday for a spot in the World Cup.
• Next Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates plays Australia in Doha, Qatar.
• That winner will play Peru on June 13th and Costa Rica will play New Zealand on the 14th in Al Rayyan for the final two of the 32 spots.
• The Ukraine-Scotland-Wales winner goes into the group with England, Iran, and the United States.
• The Peru-UAE-Australia winner joins France, Denmark, and Tunisia.
• The Costa Rica-New Zealand winner gets the unenviable group of Spain, Germany, and Japan.
• A current list of entrants for the first breakaway Saudi-backed golf tour event has Dustin Johnson on it -- no Phil at this point.
• Graeme McDowell is also on the list.
• And, as a result, RBC has fired both Johnson and McDowell as golfers they are sponsoring.
  
• There will be three different covers for this year's Madden 22.  All, to no one's surprise, will feature different facets of the late John Madden, who passed just after Christmas.  One as a coach, one as a broadcaster, one as a media personality.
• Tonight in Minneapolis is the first concert of a month-long, 15-concert national tour for Deborah Gibson.  It is her first solo national concert tour since her One Step Ahead Tour in 1991.  The concert tour is to support her current album The Body Remembers.  And, to Deborah, with COVID around, I can only offer the words of "The Hunger Games":  May the odds ever be in your favor.    
• And that's not the only issue:  She's also had a recent flare-up of her Lyme Disease.
• The longtime partner of Mark Rypien has sued him for domestic abuse.
• In a move which will only inflame the bigotry further, Lia Thomas has formally announced she did not transition for competitive advantage.
• Tommy Pham has called his fantasy football commissioner Mike Trout the worst commissioner in fantasy sports.  I'd seriously doubt that.    
• Yardbarker is the latest to throw in with sports betting on this first of June:  New betting newsletter.