WATERCOOLER CHAT: GOOD DAY FOR RUNNING BACKS, OJ MAYO TO DALLAS, SANDUSKY EVEN MORE OF A MONSTER
FOOTBALL
In the NFL, it was a good day for some of football’s top running-backs. Both Chicago’s Matt Forte and Baltimore’s Ray Rice were holding out for big contracts this off-season. These guys have done a lot to help their respective teams and wanted long term contracts. In the NFL, it’s all about staying healthy, and if you don’t, teams will throw you away like trash. Additionally, the position of running-back is changing. The days of playing the position for 10 seasons as a starting running back are over. Teams like to stock 2 if not 3 starting running backs to keep them fresh and throw off defenses. With that said, it’s hard to lock up a lucrative long-term deal — which is way Matt Forte and Ray Rice are smiling after they nabbed both. Forte got $32MM and Rice got a 5-year $40MM deal. Congrats to both guys, as they will both be instrumental in getting their teams to the post season this year.
BASKETBALL
And in the NBA, a free agent move. O.J. Mayo was one of the most touted players coming out of High School EVER! He played one year of college ball at USC, then jumped to the NBA, being drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies #3 overall. But, in Memphis, Mayo didn’t even start. He was very helpful coming off the bench, but he never quite played up to his potential there.  He was a free agent this off-season, and he felt it was time to move on. So OJ Mayo is headed to Dallas. The Mavs will need his outside shooting, and are hoping that he can take his game to the next level. The Mavs are kind of in rebuilding mode. They’re not bad, but they’re getting older, and definitely need some younger legs. Mayo will help with that.
FOOTBALL
Finally, in some disturbing news, it appears that this Jerry Sandusky Penn State scandal won’t end. In fact, it keeps getting worse. Sandusky was found guilty recently on many counts of sexual abuse towards young boys. Most of the claims were from the 1990s, and Sandusky’s defense said that “People do not just become pedophiles in their 50s.  Just yesterday, two more people accused Sandusky of abuse, and they date back to the 1970s. That puts the defenses very weak argument to rest, and shows that Sandusky’s monstrous activities have been going on his entire life. This is just a horrible story, but at least it appears that some justice is being done.
