The seemingly interminable wait is finally over for the fans. The fantasy football drafts are in the books (did you pick Le’Veon Bell? If so, sorry!) and the games are starting in earnest.
And yet a guy who isn’t even on an NFL roster has stolen the headlines ahead of Week 1.
Elsewhere around American sports, Rafael Nadal survived a marathon, the U.S. Ryder Cup team was honed, a baseball player rocked and there’s an early showdown in American college football.
Here’s a look at the week on the American sports landscape.
- The anthem, the ad and the angst
Tom Brady and the Patriots. Check. Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles. Check. Colin Kaepernick and Nike … um, hang on.
The NFL’s national anthem issue (still) isn’t resolved as the 2018 season begins.
So while the focus is on whether the surprising Eagles can duplicate last year’s shocking Super Bowl result, Nike, an official league apparel supplier, has given voice to a free-agent quarterback who has accused the NFL of colluding to keep him out because he kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial and social injustice.
An ad featuring Kaepernick was scheduled to air during the NFL season opener on Thursday between the Falcons and Eagles. Commemorating the 30th anniversary of Nike’s iconic “Just Do It” campaign, the ad is voiced over by Kaepernick and features Serena Williams and LeBron James.
At the end of the commercial, Kaepernick turns to the camera and says: “So don’t ask if your dreams are crazy. Ask if they’re crazy enough.”
It’s part of a blitz that started on Monday when Kaepernick posted a print ad of himself with the words: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”
Days before the start of a new NFL season, Nike had forced the issue, assuring that it will be front and centre before the games kick off - just like the national anthem.
- Rafa goes long at the U.S. Open
The U.S. Open is nearing a conclusion with the defending women’s champion, American Sloane Stephens, gone and the top seed on the men’s side, Rafael Nadal, having to earn his way through.
Nadal defeated Dominic Thiem 0-6 6-4 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) in a marathon quarter-final match that began on Tuesday evening at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York but didn’t end until 02:03 local time on Wednesday.
Digest these numbers about that match:
4:49: Time of the match in hours and minutes, the longest of the tournament so far.
15:54: The combined length of Nadal’s first five matches.
6-0: Score of the first set, won by Thiem in 24 minutes. It was just the fourth time in 282 career grand slam matches that Nadal had lost a set 6-0. He went on to lose in the other three matches.
171-165: Final point totals in favour of Thiem.
- Meet Bryson DeChambeau, brainiac
United States Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk has one more spot to fill on his team that will take on the Thomas Bjorn’s side later this month in France.
In making captain’s picks this week, Furyk went with a couple of old heads — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson — along with the hottest young player on the PGA Tour, Bryson DeChambeau.
Woods, 42, and Mickelson, 48, you know. DeChambeau? Maybe not.
The Californian is 24, has three PGA Tour wins this year, two in the past two weeks in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and, well, he’s … different.
All of his irons and wedges are cut to exactly the same length, 37.5 inches, and he’ll go on at length about his brain frequencies as they relate to his golf game.
In fact, ahead of this week’s BMW Championship near Philadelphia, DeChambeau described his system, beginning with being connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG).
Pretty standard stuff, right?
So, at any rate (or frequency), DeChambeau is assured of a place in the Tour Championship with his two victories. It’ll be interesting to see how he balances his parasympathetic response (restful state) and sympathetic system (stressful state) there.
- The Rockies rock
The Colorado Rockies’ Trevor Story on Wednesday hit a home run that went an estimated 505 feet, over the bleacher seats and into a hamburger stand at Coors Field in Denver. How American!
Even if you don’t know baseball, you should know that a ball hit 505ft has gone a long way. There’s an old baseball saying that goes - anything that travels that far ought to have a flight attendant on it.
It was the longest MLB home run since Statcast started measuring distances in 2015, one of three home runs Story hit on Wednesday that went a combined 1,380 feet.
Here’s a look at the longest home runs in MLB since Statcast started measuring (for the record - Franchy Cordero alert!):
Longest homers in feet since 2015 1. 505 - Trevor Story, 5/9/18 (Coors Field)2. 504 - Giancarlo Stanton, 6/8/16 (Coors Field)3-T. 495 - Aaron Judge, 11/6/17 (Yankee Stadium, New York)3-T. 495 - Kris Bryant, 6/9/15 (Wrigley Field, Chicago)5-T. 493 - Gary Sanchez, 22/8/17 (Comerica Park, Detroit)5-T. 493 - Nelson Cruz, 24/9/16 (Target Field, Minneapolis)5-T. 493 - Michael A. Taylor, 20/8/15 (Coors Field)
Oh, and by the way, the Rockies find themselves in an NL West race. First-place Colorado (77-62) hold a slender one-and-a-half-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who come to town Friday, and are two games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
- American college football gets serious
Dress rehearsals are ongoing for most nationally ranked teams in American college football, but things get serious - like SEC serious - for two teams.
The Southeastern Conference, the consensus toughest league in the land, drops an East Division test in Georgia’s lap as the Bulldogs travel to take on 24th-ranked South Carolina.
Georgia, who lost the College Football Playoff Championship to Alabama in January, is the prohibitive favourite in the East but has a tricky schedule down the road. A win on Saturday is a must.
However, with a win, South Carolina would immediately become the favourite in the SEC East and could be chasing more than 10 wins this season.
The only other head-to-head duel between nationally ranked teams will happen out West, where No.10 Stanford host Southern California, who are ranked 17.
0 votes
