Morning Cup Of Joe
May 28th, 2024
Welcome to your Morning Cup of Joe, an eye-opener to help Joe’s readers ease into their busy workday with a few football links, wacky news and a pleasant distraction.
The notion that NFL Network studio shows and on-air talent don’t bring in dollars is hysterically funny. First, set aside how NFL Network’s morning ratings skyrocketed after dumping the boring and atrociously vapid NFLAM and launching Good Morning Football. Why the hell do you think the NFL got rid of the annoying, pompous Michael Fabiano for Cynthia Frelund? (The five most feared words in the broadcast medium were, “We welcome in Michael Fabiano… “) If on-air talent not pulling eyeballs was really the case, NFL Network would have canned everyone years ago and hired college interns working for stale leftovers and bottled water from the lunchroom. You don’t think NFL Network, based in Los Angeles, couldn’t find young, cheap, visually stimulating warm bodies at scale? Please! The NFL would have a line stretching from the NFL Network studios in Inglewood out to Century City for twentysomethings looking to get a high-profile gig like that for next to no money. [PFT]
Teams expected to make a jump in the standings. [CBS]
Defensive gurus to watch. [Yahoo!]
Trey Lance said he is currently at his best. [NFL]
Cool! [TikTok]
Two flight attendants claim former Jags kicker Brandon McManus grinded (?) on them and asked other flight attendants to perform suggestive acts while flying to a London game overseas last year. [BSPN]
Hayden Hopkins, the twenty-six-year-old Vegas dancer rumored to be carrying the child of Raiders owner Mark Davis, 69, takes to Instagram to angrily deny he’s the father, or that they ever hooked up. Oh, look! She’s a Joe Tryon-Shoyinka fan! [Instagram]
Peter King surfaces from retirement to lash out at BSPN for letting Ed Werder go. Again. [Awful Announcing]
Bill Walton, maybe the best center Joe ever saw before injuries did him in and perhaps just as good of a basketball broadcaster, fell victim to cancer at 71. Watching his beloved UCLA leave the “Conference of Champions” and the PAC-12 for the B1G may have done him in. He hated the idea. [Los Angeles Times]
Long-time Jacksonville sports icon David Lamm passes at 78. [Jacksonville]
Camille Kostek admits again that she broke a Belicheats rule to date foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski while she was still a Belicheats cheerleader. She said in the end, it was worth it. Ya’ think? How many millions has she made because she is Gronk’s arm candy? [Outkick]
The Big Lead, once a smart, fun and really cool site when current FOX Sports personality Jason McIntyre owned it, is no more. It was bought out years ago by the current owners of Sports Illustrated (McIntyre initially sold it to Gannett, which in turn sold it to SI.com’s parent company) and it appears that its content now is only featured as part of SI.com. Used to be a fun site but after McIntyre sold it, the site devolved into a non-basketball association/soccer-focused website if not a left-leaning corner of the interwebs (shock!), sort of an Awful Announcing type. Back before JoeBucsFan.com was born, Joe wrote some for The Big Lead. [AdWeek]
Dollar stores are running out of dollars. [KTLA]
Merica: When watching the kid gets in the way of beer-drinkin’. [TikTok]
.@MadDogUnleashed is FIRED UP over the NFL's Christmas schedule 😭 pic.twitter.com/f4DBVv5fHy
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 22, 2024
"Dave Canales is gonna be a great fit for Bryce Young and he's trying to build this thing around him..
I think that was a great hire and he did a great job with Baker Mayfield last year" ~ @KirkHerbstreit#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/AYV45Fvit7
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 22, 2024
May 28th, 2024 at 6:53 am
Sorry to hear about Walton. I remember back when they still played basketball he was a legend at UCLA and had the fundamentals of the game down pat like no other.
Used to love hear his genius level wit during the games as well. Like you Joe I am done with the NBA. Sadly it is no longer basketball.
Go Bucs!
May 28th, 2024 at 7:27 am
Sad to hear about Walton. He seemed like such a good-hearted, positive, and all around likable guy. A basketball superstar.
May 28th, 2024 at 8:22 am
Although the NBA athletes today are superior to the 1970’s, the 1977 Trail Blazers were a great and fun team to watch- forever a legend in Portland.
And Walton attending concerts and playing with the Grateful Dead and riding his 10 speed to games was amusing.
May 28th, 2024 at 10:58 am
I am rarely affected by celebrity deaths, but Bill Walton is one of the exceptions. I grew up a Celtics fan in the 80s as a kid so I remember Walton towards the tail end of his career. My fondest memories are of him as a broadcaster and personality. He was unlike any person in sports I’ve listened to call a basketball game. It felt more like the Bill Walton experience. His spirit lives on!
May 28th, 2024 at 1:01 pm
I lived in Portland OR when the Trailblazers won the NBA.
That team was one of the most incredible machines I ever saw on the court, and Walton was pure majik that season.
The last half of the ’77 season and first half of ’78, the Blazers were close to unstoppable…until Walton started his injury string.
I lived next door in the same apartment building as T.R. Dunn, Blazer Rookie in ’78, and got to meet Walton at his apartment.
I loved Bill Walton, a true hippie basketball player.
May 28th, 2024 at 1:51 pm
Man I see Bill Walton around town all the time. He’s always at the same local music shows, or out riding his bike on the trails, etc. He even frequently would “play bongos” with one of our local Grateful Dead cover bands out here. Just a super cool, incredibly nice person to his core. And hilarious. And insanely tall of course lol. Can’t miss him in a crowd, that’s for sure.
RIP to a legend!
May 28th, 2024 at 1:53 pm
Agreed, and yes listening to him call games was certainly an experience lol. His style of s(p)it talking was truly one of a kind.
May 28th, 2024 at 2:08 pm
Dave Pasch, who used to work with Bill Walton for many years, shared text messages from his X account between himself and Bill. They are very funny. Walton used to text Pasch during the games he was calling, asking him if he’s watching the game and wondering why the guy calling it was stealing his lines. LOL!
May 28th, 2024 at 4:27 pm
^ Haha that’s hilarious.
Walton always seemed like a great dude in all my interactions with him over the years.