EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – The Virus dominates all discussion and topics, as we are looking at an undetermined time with no sports on TV. It is a great time, therefore, to get acquainted with “The Wire” or some other shows on Amazon Prime, Hulu or Netflix. I refuse to watch Disney Plus, but there is stuff on ESPN Classic that may be worth watching. Hopefully, I can at least be as entertaining as repeats today. With that, here are the topics for discussion: No 2020 Olympics, NFL Off-Season, XFL to NFL.
No 2020 Olympics
Just two weeks ago, I talked about how I didn’t even know the Olympics were happening, now they might not happen at all. That is right, the “Rona” might have taken out the Olympics. It looks like with the global health crisis likely to be still be raging, that the Olympics have to cancelled. I can’t remember the Olympics being cancelled for any reason outside of war. However, Canada has already decided they won’t be sending any athletes and we can be sure there are plenty of other nations that will follow suit. So Tokyo 2021 seems to be more likely.
NFL Off-Season
With no other sports in town, the NFL free agent market is where all the attention is going to. I can look at the articles on this website the last few days as proof of that. I like what I am seeing out of the the Jets and their GM Joe Douglass. Douglass has gone about inking solid but unspectacular signings. He has signed a couple of guys that are solid teams guys but have bounced around the league or guys who can play two or three positions well but haven’t had a long time in one spot for the offensive line. The plan appears to be to take a couple of grinders and add a high draft pick to see if that can get QB Sam Darnold the protection he needs. Douglass has also acted fast in re-signing the slot CB, cutting last year’s terrible starting outside corners and signing new replacements. Again not flashy guys but sold and steady players, hoping they can thrive with the addition of a quality edge rusher or two. Now if only we could get rid of the coach. Looks like we will have to wait another year for that.
XFL to NFL
Speaking of the NFL Off-season, starting at 9am today XFL players are free to be signed by the NFL. It is given that some NFL Team will sign PJ Walker, the QB of the Houston Roughnecks. Walker is likely to be the Tommy Maddox of the league. His wide receiver Cam Robinson also looks likely to end up on some NFL roster. An interesting story is safety Kenny Robinson of St. Louis, who after being dismissed by West Virginia University for a team violation decided to join the XFL than go to another college or do the whole JuCo bounce-back thing. I think that shows a level of professionalism from the kid. Also look for Martez Ivey of Tampa Bay, as handy offensive tackles always garner interest and maybe New York Guardians CB Jamar Summers may find time with J-E-T-S, seeing how the CB situation for Gang Green remains a concern.
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