9/1 (CFB Hangover) Quickie

*I'm totally fine with "Johnny being Johnny." It's who he is and good for the sport. You can dislike him for it, but isn't that part of the fun?

*The "making money" hand gesture (by Manziel and Tajh Boyd, among others) should be THE move in college football this year. Not that this is Manziel's intent, but nothing captures the absurdity of college football's unpaid system of amateurism like the subtle signal. By next week, it will draw a penalty, of course.

*Speaking of Boyd, he was on my Top 5 preseason Heisman list, and I'm totally comfortable with that. Huge win for Clemson, which will only make their perennial mystifying loss all the more baffling.

*Your win of the week: Eastern Washington over Oregon State, which was even better than North Dakota State's win over Kansas State. FCS!

*Florida isn't flashy, but I was happy with how solid they looked in a season opener that typically displays some creakiness. Playing without their RB1 or CB1, they stifled a solid Toledo team.

*Did Northwestern have its defensive players lay down in order to slow down Cal's up-tempo offense, which was leading the team to a late-night upset win? Maybe? Possibly? (Probably?) But that move is a strategic advantage to be exploited. Sanctimony over it is for fans who are winless.

*Very solid win by LSU over TCU -- given the opponent, arguably the fourth most-impressive win of the day (behind Clemson beating Georgia, EWU over Oregon State and Washington clocking Boise State). Alabama is up there, too. Don't let the yardage output fool you.

*Five top-ranked teams I don't know enough about yet, despite gaudy outcomes yesterday: Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame.

*Looking ahead to next week: South Carolina at Georgia, Notre Dame at Michigan, Florida at Miami (Upset special: Western Kentucky over Tennessee in Knoxville.)

*Great read by my colleague Paul Myerberg, who had all-access to ESPN's College Gameday crew.

*If I had a Top 25 ballot, I'd rank Clemson at No. 1 (resume-ranking FTW), followed by Alabama, LSU, Eastern Washington and Washington.

08/30 (It's Fall) Quickie

*Ole Miss' win over Vandy was as entertaining as you could hope for on a CFB opening night.

*The late illegal block on Jadeveon Clowney is Exhibit A why he should immediately drop out of college and wait for the NFL Draft, where he is guaranteed to be the No. 1 pick -- unless some renegade opposing player takes out his knee.

*So excited for the opening weekend. Viewing guide:

Noon-ish: Toledo at Florida (ESPN3). Trap game? Trap game.
3:30-ish: Miss St at OK St (ABC) +  5:30: Alabama-Va Tech (ESPN).
8-ish: Georgia-Clemson on ABC (check LSU-TCU at 9 on ESPN).
10:30: Northwestern at Cal (ESPN2). Late night, friends.
Key picks: Clemson. LSU. (Upset watch: Toledo. Gah!)

Want a great CFB read to get you ready for the season?
Spencer Hall on Vandy O-line coach Herb Hand.

This from Grantland's Bill Barnwell covers my feelings on the NFL brain-injury settlement.

-- D.S.

8/28 (CFB) Quickie

I love college football. Full stop.

Thursday night marks the start of the season, so I figured I might as well wedge in a few predictions:

*The South Carolina opener will feature my pick as the Heisman winner -- Jadeveon Clowney, the first one-way defensive player to win the award of the modern era.

The question isn't whether he is the best player in college football -- I would argue he is probably the best defensive player in the history of college football. The question is whether voters will reward that. I'm betting they want to make history as much as they recognize they are watching history.

*Alabama will win the national title -- again (again) (again again).

*That said, the perfect way to cap off the ridiculous BCS era would be if a one-loss SEC champ was shut out of the national-title game because two unbeaten teams (say, Ohio State and the Pac-12 champ) went unbeaten facing inferior schedules.

*Because starting next year, the national title game will perennially be between the two SEC teams that make the playoff foursome -- and there will be two SEC teams in the playoff foursome, perennially -- and that'll be that (until they change the system to force the two SEC teams to play each other in the semifinal, probably for the second time in a season.)

*The Tide will obliterate unbeaten Ohio State in the national title game, because (1) that's what the SEC does to Ohio State in national title games, and (2) that's what Nick Saban does to Urban Meyer. I loathe Ohio State as much as any team in the country, so I hope I'm pleasantly surprised and Alabama plays, say, unbeaten Stanford.

*Louisville will go unbeaten -- sublime QB Teddy Bridgewater will finish as runner-up in Heisman voting -- but merely return to a lower-tier BCS bowl, before Charlie Strong leaves to become the new head coach at Nebraska.

*In the opening week, I know I should be taking Georgia over Clemson, but I'm a sucker for Boyd, so I'll take Clemson over Georgia in the Game of the Week. Clemson's typical collapse will come later in the season against a seemingly overmatched foe, as usual.

*What I read last night, college football edition: Warren St. John's profile of Nick Saban in GQ.

-- D.S.

8/27 (Tuesday) Quickie

*Matt Harvey's injury is a reminder about the vagaries of pitcher health. And, wow, do I feel bad for Mets fans.

*Is Jeff Tuel -- with a leap unseen in the past half-century from undrafted rookie to Week 1 starting QB in Buffalo -- the best storyline of NFL's Week 1? Well, no (the return of RGIII is) and clearly, the best game is Packers-49ers, but it is one of those things that instantly jumps near the top.

*Happy retirement, Tracy McGrady. I never really appreciated him -- among prolific shot-jackers, I was more of appreciative of Iverson's game. I'm not sure if he is a Hall of Famer. He should have been a lock -- maybe that's the point.

Of course, McGrady is also responsible for arguably the most impressive flurry of scoring in a single game in the history of the league -- the legendary "13 in 35."



*Keith Olbermann's new show was, predictably, fun. (I'm a long-time Olbermann fan, so I was inclined to enjoy it.) Very heavy on "meta-media" coverage (not necessarily inappropriately, but you wonder how many fans care about the NY Daily News coverage of Rex Ryan, versus the basic idea that he made/didn't make the right choice with Sanchez). But points for a different kind of angle to a story that was worked over by Monday night.

(FWIW, 11 pm is a late start for me on a school night, but through the magic of the WatchESPN app, I was leaning back comfortably and able to enjoy the show. I love that app -- and it gets even more important/integral to my life when college football starts this weekend.)

-- D.S.

8/25 (Sunday) Quickie

What I'm reading this morning: The NYT longread on ESPN's impact on college football.

There's a great phrase in there, about serving the "breakfast-to-bedtime fan" of college football. I recognized myself in that cohort, for sure, and that audience was certainly an aspiration of Quickish.

-- D.S.

8/22 (What I'm Reading) Quickie

What I'm reading, last night and this morning:

*Mark Cuban analyzes Google's play for the NFL with the WSJ's Peter Kafka.

(Also, if Apple TV secures a la carte rights to ESPN isn't an extinction-level event for cable companies, but it changes the game in ways that are much bigger than anyone will predict.)

*Reuters' Jack Shafer (I'm a huge fan of his) totally mis-reads the "Grantland Model."

*Grantland's Bill Barnwell has a two-part piece on the myth of "momentum" in the NFL. It's excellent. Read Part 1 here and read Part 2 here.

*Wright Thompson writing longish on legendary Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable.

Wednesday 8/21 (Very) Quickie

Apologies for the light posting as I work with a team of my USA TODAY Sports Media Group colleagues to (imminently) launch the next evolution of Quickish, coming (very) soon...

There's one point I want to make about this Von Miller suspension that has been nagging at me:

He was suspended for six games. If he was a baseball player, that would be 60 games, a nearly unprecedented suspension.

In MLB circles, a 60-game suspension for one of the game's Top 5 players would be cause for a five-alarm freak-out -- we have pretty good evidence of that, with Ryan Braun.

In NFL circles, a suspension for nearly half the season of one of the best players in the sport -- arguably the best defensive player in the game -- is met with... well, not much.

There is a bit about how it will impact the Broncos' chances in those first six games -- and what implications that might have on their playoff chances (Super Bowl or bust, and all that).

But there is basically zero outrage, both relative to baseball and in an absolute sense. Is that because everyone ("everyone") basically accepts that pro football is powered at its core by PEDs?

As someone who sides with the group that finds the moralizing in baseball about PEDs to be wearying, hypocritical and counter-productive (see baseball's entire "Golden Age" fueled by something now banned as a PED -- amphetamines), it's so fascinating to me that a massive suspension to one of the NFL's biggest stars doesn't move the needle among the moralizing faction.

-- D.S.

8/6 (Tuesday) Quickie

More seriously than the previous post, I think that Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post is great for the Post and its staffers, as great as the Grahams have been as stewards of the paper.

(Again, I grew up on the Post and will take on any/all comers in the barroom to argue that the Post's sports section in the 1980s was the finest newspaper sports section ever.)

Here are a handful of relatively brief takes on Bezos/WaPo that I read that found interesting (and, to be sure, mostly support my pro-Bezos thesis):

*MG Seigler, TechCrunch: While We're Trying to Follow His Game of Checkers, Jeff Bezos is Playing Chess

*Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital (via LinkedIn): Stop the Presses: A New Press Lord Appears

*Henry Blodget, Business Insider: Here's Why I Think Jeff Bezos Bought the Washington Post

*Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine.com: Hot Off the Presses

*Mathew Ingram, PaidContent: Jeff Bezos Buys the Washington Post and the Media Industry Goes Back to the Future

*David Carr, New York Times: The Washington Post Reaches the End of the Graham Era

The key takeaways: (1) Bezos' commitment to customer relationships (which is a core part of journalism) is the most interesting dynamic... (2) the potential to leverage what Amazon knows/does in news... (3) removing the quarterly market pressures from the Post and taking the "long view" is a massive relief and ultimately a competitive advantage.

Yes, I continue to avoid the A-Rod story....

-- D.S.

8/5 (Bezos) Quickie

Because I don't really want to talk about A-Rod and his suspension...

If I had an extra $250 million lying around like Jeff Bezos, I wouldn't buy the Washington Post (although I feel a connection to it as the paper I grew up reading). I would totally become the meddling majority owner of a sports team.

It's an interesting thing -- how to spend $250M all in one swoop -- because it forces you to really consider your priorities.

(I have to say that if I can throw off $250M on a whim, that presumes that I have already given a hefty chunk away to good causes.)

But, yeah: Sports team owner. As an instant reaction, that really does seem to be the pinnacle for me, for some reason. I'm sure with some thought, I could think of something more interesting, like owning basically whatever I wanted.

Oh, wait. With $250M, I would totally launch my long-sought-after professional football minor league and fill the insanely good opportunity between the NFL and college football.

But that's sort of like owning a sports team, right? Basically.

-- D.S.

8/1 (August Already?) Quickie

*Riley Cooper: LeSean McCoy is right.

*Alabama is No. 1: Does the rest of the poll matter? Heck yes, given that it influences who Alabama will play (hint: Anyone but Ohio State). The dominance by the SEC is the standard talking point. It is also a reminder that in this very month, we will see a match-up between two Top 10 teams, Georgia and Clemson, which is awesome.

*A-Rod: A lifetime ban is a fun, wacky idea. But let's assume they negotiate that down to the rest of this season and all of next season, which might as well be a lifetime ban, except for the Yankees, who will have to pay him all that remaining money.

*Buck Showalter: The whole "If the Yankees can dump A-Rod's salary, they will totally steal Matt Weiters from us in two years" thing was wildly refreshing in its candor. Is he wrong?

*John Wall: As a Wizards fan, I am totally comfortable giving him The Max. I think he ascends to all-NBA status within two years (standard caveats about avoiding injuries). Does a deal that big hamper the team's ability to sign other players to help him? Probably, if you're comparing it to Stephen Curry's bargain deal. And that's too bad. But the system is the system. Now go earn it, JW.

*Chip Kelly: He might downplay the "refs will slow-play the Eagles' offense" thing for now, but I'm betting that it is a huge problem. Frankly, it's a huge blow to the integrity of the league that it wouldn't ensure that refs work as quickly as any team wants to play. Why there would be a distinction between the refs having to play faster during the final two minutes than the rest of the game is ludicrous.

-- D.S.

Best Thing I Read In July: Thompson on Manziel

Best thing I read in July comes swooping in at the buzzer: Wright Thompson on Johnny Manziel. Give it a read or Pocket it and save it for a read later. But definitely worth a read.

7/30 (Tuesday) Quickie

(1) Peter Gammons is launching a site. I don't know whether it will be successful or not. I will say that:

(a) the conditions for an "indie" site like that are far tougher in 2013 than, say, if he had tried it in 2007 or 2008...

(2) it's a tough content category to crack, even with his name recogition...

and, most of all, (3) unlike Simmons or King or Silver, who have 100% backing (funding, resources, promotion, sales, etc.)

Gammons is trying to do it on his own (or even with a partner like Tru, who has managed to secure a launch sponsor, which is a pretty solid feat on its own merits).

That -- more than anything -- is the difference, what makes comps between Gammons and Simmons/King apples and oranges beyond "big name in mainstream sports media starts his own* site."

(* - "Own" is relative.)

I applaud anyone in media trying to be more entrepreneurial. But it's going to be tough sledding, however much I wish him the best. Keep an eye on his Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign as a barometer.

(2) I'm bummed about the Nats this season, but I'm down with the Rays taking it to Boston -- errant call or not.

(3) I think I haven't appreciated Adrian Peterson enough in his career, but I look forward to doing more of that going forward -- he has been on a roll with his candor (test for HGH, he'll break Emmitt's rushing record in a few years), and this photo is the best.

If you like the NBA, this is Zach Lowe at his best.

-- D.S.

7/29 (Monday) Quickie

Been unpacking a ton of boxes -- particularly books that I have bought and carried around for close to 20 years -- and I will say that in addition to some really out-dated business books and a few dalliances with both trendy fiction and interesting-sounding-at-the-time Gladwellian books attempting to explain life (none of which I will ever read again, but still I feel compelled to hold on to), I have a ton of sports books and most have (and will) stand the test of time. Anyway...

(1) US Men's National Soccer Team: A Gold Cup title means that I think we have reached "World Cup knock-out round or bust" territory (if we weren't there before).

(2) Yasiel Puig: Yup.

(3) Derek Jeter: That he hit a HR on his first pitch back from the DL was... cliche? Obvious? No, not obvious. But definitely cliche.

(4) Johnny Manziel: With every new absurd off-field thing, I like him more and more.

Book I unpacked that gave me the biggest tug of nostalgia -- An autographed copy of "High Hopes," a book that Gary Barnett and then-St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Vahe Gregorian wrote after Barnett led Northwestern to the Rose Bowl in 1995. Yes, Barnett is a pariah in college football coaching, and there are many reasons I should dislike him, but I can't. He got the Purple to Pasadena, a mere five years after strolling into Welsh-Ryan Arena the day he was hired and telling all the (appropriately cynical) students that he would do just that.

-- D.S.

7/22 (MMQB) Quickie

(1) I am impossibly biased when it comes to Peter King. Back in 1998, I worked on MMQB with King, and as someone who was largely unimpressed/uninspired by the enthusiasm or savvy about online journalism from the SI editorial staff (almost entirely magazine-oriented), King was different. He totally got that his MMQB column was not just important, but most important. I think he realized that it was more important than an SI magazine cover story. And as SI's impact through the magazine has continued to wane, King's impact through MMQB online has only grown exponentially since then. The new site -- TheMMQB.com -- is the next evolution of MMQB and the continuing evolution as "brand within brand" for mainstream media companies. The thing is that unlike Nate Silver or Andrew Ross Sorkin or Ezra Klein or even Bill Simmons, Peter King was a "brand within a brand" online 15 years ago, heralding what we are seeing today. That's not to knock Silver or Sorkin or Klein or Simmons; I have spent a pretty big part of my career working on "brands within brands" (cough -- Daily Quickie -- cough), but King was/is a pioneer. Here's to great success for him and his team.

(2) Nate Silver to ESPN is made official. See below for my reaction to it from the weekend when the news first broke. Great move for Nate. Great move for ESPN. Not great for the New York Times, but there are plenty of ways for them to push through that.

A quick aside to my friends in sports media: You are not Peter King. You are not Nate Silver. You are not Bill Simmons. The number of folks who can carry a stand-alone sports-media franchise is so small, I'm not even sure I can make it to a second hand. There are incredible talents. There are lots of "names" who might THINK they qualify. But they are orbiting satellites, not planets.

What all of those people COULD do -- if they weren't so focused on building their personal brand -- is do something entrepreneurial that might propel them to something bigger. That can certainly happen with lesser-known people who think and act entrepreneurially (I would self-promotingly say that the Daily Quickie was that kind of effort). But it takes a massive effort, even if you are doing it within the comfort of your mainstream company, and I'm not sure most of those folks want to put in that kind of effort. It's why you see so much success from folks who self-started with a blog back in the middle of the last decade -- it was an act of entrepreneurship, and it carried over into the jobs they are in now, many with mainstream media companies.

But the fact is that those opportunities are there for the taking -- you just have to combine a willingness to ID the opportunity, then work like hell not just to make it happen, but to make it grow.

(3) Phil Mickelson. If I was writing the morning column this summer, I would say that Phil's 66 yesterday to win the British Open wasn't just Phil's greatest round ever (which even he is ready to apply instant history to), but it was the finest round of golf of the sport's Tiger Era -- so, going back nearly 20 years -- period.

-- D.S.

7/20 (Nate Silver) Quickie

Weekend news that has my attention: Nate Silver -- who took his "538" franchise to the New York Times, which became a huge win-win for both sides -- is leaving for ESPN and taking 538 with him.

I'm presuming he will have a huge role on the new "Olbermann" show -- a great move for both Nate and Keith -- and will get to expand the 538 franchise more into sports (along with keeping attention on the core "politics" franchise for ABC News).

In the end, the NYT just can't compete with ESPN -- for money, for breadth of opportunity and, certainly as it relates to sports, for impact. And, as others have noted, given the impact Silver had on the NYT last fall, this is a big hit.

Meanwhile, expect a ton of discussion about how Silver and the move (his own personal "Decision?") heralds the new era of "power of media talent as individual brands."

I'm not sure about that as some sort of blanket theme, for a couple of reasons:

(1) The most talented (and even less-talented) individual media "names" have jumped around for better opportunities since the beginning of media.

--> Silver happens to be a bigger journo-celebrity than most -- certainly the NYT's most high-profile talent during election season. But this is hardly the first time that ESPN has poached top-tier NYT talent -- most recently, the amazing Don Van Natta comes to mind.)

(2) Silver is a "99th percentile" talent in media.

--> It's like when people cite Andrew Sullivan as a replicable model, as if any journalist can/will do what he did. Same thing goes for SI's Peter King and his new MMQB site, launching on Monday -- there are probably less than a handful of sportswriters who can carry a full-blown site spin-off.

(3) Most media people don't have the stomach to try to build out their own independent brand, as Silver did with 538, before 538 was licensed by the NYT. (For reference: See this Nieman Lab piece by Megan Garber at the time of the 538-NYT deal for good details/foreshadowing of last night's news)

--> The most innovative thing about that deal was that rather than let 538 be "acquired" -- which is the default position of most founders -- he recognized the potential of a short-term license, with a re-negotiation when his contract was up. A deal for Silver-as-talent is fairly typical; being able to offer a known/loved property like 538 -- even if Silver himself is clearly the core feature of the brand -- makes it all the more valuable. Not that Silver couldn't have simply left 538 behind, had the NYT bought it outright, and started a new brand at ESPN/ABC News. 95% of the brand equity of 538 is Silver himself.)

I'm a huge Nate Silver fan for both political analysis and sports, so I am excited for him about the move. It makes a lot of sense for both Silver and ESPN.

And, hopefully, it encourages individual journalists and media talents -- along with the media companies themselves -- to think about investing more in building original franchises like 538 and MMQB. More on that theme next week.

-- D.S.

7/17 (Three Things) Quickie

(1) Mariano Rivera is the best. (Watch his intro last night.)

(2) Steve Spurrier still rules the SEC. (Get the highlights.)

(3) Keith Olbermann is back. (This will be fun.)

-- D.S.

7/15 (Rested and Ready) Quickie

Back after some vacation, not unlike Peter King, who came back with a week to go until his new spin-off NFL site launches next week -- definitely something I have my eye on.

*Johnny Manziel was already in "Johnny Being Johnny" territory. The difference between his other stuff and this weekend's kerfluffle with the Mannings is that it was the Mannings.

*MLB Home Run Derby: I'm picking Bryce Harper, who will have his dad pitching to him.

*Chris Davis: Still, hitting 37 HR by the All-Star break is huge. I'm bearish that he can reach the magic "62" milestone, but his chase for it is the most compelling non-playoff-positioning storyline of the second half.

*Today's Name to Know: Jordan Spieth, the youngest player to win a PGA Tour event in more than a half-century. The star power might erode over time, but there is no question that the next 10-20 years of golf will feature far better overall play in the top tier than the past 10-20. That, more than anything, is Tiger's legacy to the sport.

*SEC Media Days week: No offense to Ivan Maisel, but Johnny Manziel isn't a bigger college football celebrity than Tim Tebow was in 2009. His presence at SECMD will be huge, no question -- I'm happy to call him the second-biggest celebrity in college football history -- but there is only one Tebowmania.

*Greg Oden to the Mavs? The win-win here is that Dallas will put as many resources against Oden's rehab and overall health as any team out there, even if the Mavs have zero chance of being competitive (meaning: competing for a title) this season.

*Metta World Peace on the Knicks feels so right, there's no way it can be wrong.

*Your (tangential) Sports x Politics read of the day is Ta-Nehisi Coates on Trayvon Martin, a searing read which ends with a reference to Bill Parcells' most famous quote.

-- D.S.

7/6 (Howard the Rocket) Quickie

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey is not just the NBA executive of the year - you can put that one in the bank - but he is the Exec of the Year in all of sports. 

It's not just about getting Dwight Howard, who immediately helps position Houston as one of only a handful (4?) of teams who have a realistic shot at the NBA title next year (or the near future).

It is the idea - and this is my favortite data point I have seen in the last 24 hiurs - that as of just one year ago, the Rockets had only two current players on their roster. 

Morey tried to land Dwight in a trade. Then, having failed, he pulled off the Harden heist (getting Lin and Asik too) while still maintaining the cap flexibility to make a run at Dwight as a free agent, now with a way more compelling case for landing him.

Now, Morey has not one but two "franchise" players, plus Asik (who could be flipped) plus Lin plus Parsons, who is like a better/younger/cheaper version of Ryan Anderson, who teamed with Dwight on that Magic team that made the Finals on the strength of Howard and 3s. The Rockets already had the shooting; now, they have the center.

In short: Daryl Morey wins. What has YOUR favorite team's GM done lately?

Finally: Congrats to my USA Today Sports colleague Sam Amick on being first with the news. Great scoop.

- DS

7/5 (Dwight Decision) Quickie

If I was Dwight Howard, I would pick the Rockets.

The more intriguing thing is how the Lakers would recover from losing a presumptive core piece of their future (he was totally worth trading for, even as a year-long rental). 

Without Kobe for most of the season (and who knows how well he will be able to play), the Lakers could be awful, with few pieces to trade away (Gasol?) and an even worse situation on the court after that - it even begs the question if it is something Kobe would even want to be a part of. A Lottery pick next June would help - but not THAT much (or certainly that quickly).

Meanwhile, Houston joins a very short list of teams that should/could consider themselves actual title contenders, along with the Spurs, Thunder and Heat. That's it. 

Howard in Houston is - ok: would be -  the most intriguing storyline of the 2013-2014 NBA season. 

- DS

July 4 (Brad Stevens Independence) Quickie

Love this move. 

Love it for the Celtics, who get the best coach in the country, college or pro (with a little "Doc Who?" For good measure).

Love it for Stevens, who joins a rebuilding team with low/no expectations and even if things go sideways, he will be the most sought-after college hire. 

(In fact, you could consider this a very well-paid, reputation-burnishing sabbatical until Stevens takes Coach K's spot at Duke. Let's be honest: That's the end-game here.)

Love it for Celtics fans and NBA fans and fans of big-A analytics in major sports and even college hoops fans. 

(For the latter, it's not like Stevens had a ton more to prove. Yes, yes: Winning big at Duke. Again, we will inevitably see that. In the meantime, how about seeing the best young coaching mind tanking on the highest level if the sport - not unlike Chip Kelly going from Oregon to Philly.)

The best part: No one saw it coming. No leaks. No drawn-out drama. All business. 

- DS