EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Let’s hope my fellow married men survived the ripoff that is [Bobby] Valentine’s Day intact, with wallets only slightly deflated. 
But this is about our collective love for sports, not for wifey and it is amazing how hard it is to find topics once football season is over. I had to go digging for some of these stories and came up with these: Jameis Winston, Astros Cheating Lingers, NBA All-Star Weekend.
Jameis Winston
In my scouring for an NFL story, I came across this weird bit of news. After throwing a league leading 30 interceptions last season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting QB, Jameis Winston has gone in for Lasik surgery. How has he not had this before? Football players are massive investments for NFL franchises and that is why they have all these workout sessions, physical therapists, doctors, nutritionists and everything in between. Nobody thought to check this guy’s eyes?! I know he didn’t go all Sam Darnold and say he was seeing ghosts but I mean something must have dawned on the staff after interception number 15 that something might be up. Well anyway, let’s see if it improves for the 2020 season, as it is his final year on his rookie contract. By the way, someone should tell the Giants to go get Daniel Jones’ eyes checked also.
Astros Cheating Lingers
This is the story that won’t die. I am torn as to whether it should because it seems there is so much anger towards cheaters in sports.
In rugby, Saracens Rugby Club were caught breaking the salary cap and finding creative ways to pay their players off-the-books to win the English Premiership title 3 times and the European title 3 times that they were fined a massive amount points and dropped a division. But people are still upset because they took that punishment rather than open up their books so everyone could see just how much they cheated.
In soccer, Manchester City got caught not balancing their checkbook by the European Association’s standards and now have been banned from playing in the lucrative European Champions League for two years. However, people are also calling for their English titles to be stripped.
So, this Houston Astros issue has form in terms of precedent. I hear people complaining the Astros cheated the Yankees out of a World Series title, Some are saying Jose Altuve shouldn’t have won over Aaron Judge for league MVP. The owner plays down his role and people are upset about the players being able to leave. The Washington Nationals are saying we beat those cheaters; they shouldn’t be getting more press than us! The MLB Commissioner is saying the Astros apology wasn’t good enough either. I am tired. I don’t forgive them for cheating, but can we get to Spring Training already so we can talk actual baseball again?
NOTE: We are NOT RESPONSIBLE for bleeding ears re the above.
NBA All-Star Weekend
It just ended and I didn’t even know it was happening. Without cable, I don’t get bombarded with commercials, so I don’t pay much attention. The highlights are that it was held in Chicago and the All-Star MVP trophy has now been named the Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP Trophy. The two teams are Team LeBron vs Team Giannis. LeBron is probably the first guy to be a team captain in this new format, while representing a team in each conference. I would tell you the winner but tip-off was so late, that at press time it was only the 2nd quarter. This brings me to my main complaint. The tip-off times for these games have to be earlier so kids can watch the whole game without breaking their bedtime curfews. However, they do it for these All-Star games and playoff games and always forget the kids coming up, but I guess with all this available on-demand, the kids can watch it when they get home tomorrow or whenever.
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