Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 06, 2024

This is why baseball is the superior game. They can turn pro straight out of high school and non-US players can sign pro contracts at 16.

Especially college football. Apparently, having a perfect season record (like Florida State) is no guarantee that a team will make the playoffs.

Trying to remember — I think there was a stretch where Boopsie was coach while BD returned to active service.

I think baseball, football, and basketball, (maybe hockey and soccer) could even out by taking an idea from gold and bowling—the handicap. And the bookies already calculate it for us in the point spread.

So for instance, if a time is expected to win by two points, they’d have to win by three in order to actually win.

But I don’t expect this idea to catch on.

Exactly >

Schools are now forming donor “collectives” enabling them to openly offer money to recruits. The NYT had an article on this on Jan. 1 , University Texas offering $50k to offensive linesmen recruits. The money can also be used to poach players to transfer. If a player is marketable he can earn more than an NFL player in NIL money, often $million+. Shedeur Sanders has an NIL value of $4 million.

Just look at the tight ends. They are the best part of the game.

And so we see, the concept of “Being above the Law” and it never ends well.

The legal troubles at the college level will leave the player with superior skills at he joins the pro-offender league.

That’s not football, that’s college athletics 101.

Classic!

 Where were YOU 3 years ago?

I was …

John Doe: … at work, trying to earn a living.

Mary Moe: … still recovering from COVID.

Robin Retiree: … home watching TV, barely believing what was going down.

Mike Pence: … preparing to count the legally cast electoral votes for president.

Ron Johnson: … trying to slip an envelope of fake Wisconsin electors to Pence.

Enrique Tarrio: … leading my Proud Boys in an assault on the US Capitol.

Mike Fantone: … doing my duty.

Josh Hawley: … running for my life.

Donald Trump: … masterminding a plot to overthrow the US government.

Football’s rules are always evolving, making it more interesting

I’ve decided to stop making fun of the “infield fly” rule and start making fun of the “eligible receiver” rule.

The NFL should set up their own league of leams to draft kids straight out of high school and give them a few years experience before joining the bigtime teams. That way colleges and universities could get back to their old time teams where half the kids didn’t opt out after two years.

And now college football has to deal with NIL and the transfer portal. That’s what happened when something gets too profitable. It was destined to happen. I remember back in the 80’s some legislatures trying to pass something to pay football players. Even now, some are trying to do some sort of a pay scale for paying college players.

Ah yes, football: The alternative is usually jail or prison. What a game…

Old joke; (Insert your local pro team here) found their best defensive line up this season is Goldstien, Rabinowits and Shapiro.

Publish date: 2001-03-03. Would love to have a link back to the original strip.

Professional Baseball players can be recruited from prison. Remember Ron LeFlore?