February 9, 2023 News and Notes

• The Medical Director of the NFLPA says he believes, HIPAA concerns aside, Damar Hamlin will play in the NFL again.  I shake my head at this...   
• Jerry Lawler is in a Fort Meyers hospital after emergency surgery Monday night after a stroke caused by a brain blood blockage.
• He will be released into outpatient therapy to regain the use of one side and to help with a diminished voice from the stroke.
• It looks like the "every team in primetime" initiative in the NFL is now a thing of the past.  Starting next season, the league can flex a bad game out of Monday Night Football.  Eventually trying to do the same with Thursdays could follow, but that might be harder, given the rest problems.
• The Loudest Hole In Golf was also the most violent last year, with at least three beer-throwing incidents from the crowd at the Greater Scottsdale last year.  With the tournament about to begin, the PGA is trying to kibosh the latter -- but, in a good way...  All beer will be served in commemorative cups, in the hopes the fans will want to keep them!
• A six-year-old gelding died on the training track at Santa Anita -- and that's four this year for a track which has had a number of fatalities of horses the last several years.  Caerulean had 18 races and two wins.
• Gary Bettman, you got some questions to answer, NOW!!!  The third botched NHL Pride Night of the season has taken place in New York -- AGAIN.  The Islanders won't do any special uniforms because they believe the NHL isn't mandating them!  
• And then the league, last night, had a Black History Month game, with (mandated) uniforms to be auctioned off for [sic] "The United Negro Fund".
• facepalm
• I think we all know they meant the long-standing charity "The United Negro College Fund" -- "A mind is a terrible thing to waste..."  But there's latent racism on top of all this crap.  Thank you to my anonymous friend (and Keith Olbermann) for the heads up on a continuing debacle in the NHL -- one which, since the out-of-market NHL package is now part of ESPN+ and the last reason I retained it, meant I finally cancelled ESPN+ at the end of the current membership cycle.
• Today was the end of that cycle.    
• Brett Favre, on Thursday, filed three separate defamation lawsuits against parties he claims are committing defamation against him regarding his $77,000,000 welfare-fraud case.  The state auditor of Mississippi, Shannon Sharpe of FOX Sports, and Pat McAfee of ESPN, the WWE, and his own podcast.