#and ryan being supportive at first but ultimately following matt's lead

[cementcornfield]

not the joe burrow news and the sm news in the same 5 minutes i am trying to not have a breakdown at work

[wazafam]

While he claims to not be a serial killer, Saw villain Jigsaw is one of the most effective murderers in horror, though there have been a few victims that have escaped his grasp. Of course, were one to ask John Kramer himself, back when he was alive, anyway, he would've insisted that what he did wasn't murder. Instead, John used the Jigsaw identity to help wayward and damaged people reform, learning to have a new appreciation for life by making a sacrifice of blood and flesh to survive.

In reality, Jigsaw's twisted methods are impossible to condone. His games are nothing more than a sick vigilante taking punishment into his own hands. John may have been a decent man once upon a time, but the loss of his unborn son and the dissolution of his marriage, coupled with the terminal cancer eating away at him, eventually sapped every last bit of true humanity from his heart. No decent person could do what he does to people and not go mad.

Related: Is Jigsaw In Spiral? Saw Villain Future Explained

For the Saw fans, though, there's no reason to hate John, as in fiction, the normal bounds of morality don't necessarily apply. Many of the people Jigsaw targets are far from sympathetic characters, and watching them get theirs can be a form of catharsis. Sometimes though, the players of Jigsaw's games have survived to tell the tale. Here are all of the survivors of Jigsaw's games.

Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) was the first known survivor of a Jigsaw trap, in her case the infamous reverse bear trap. To free herself, she had to kill a man and retrieve the key to the device on her face from inside his stomach. As traumatic as it was, Amanda then kicked her drug addiction and ended up joining John as his first confirmed apprentice, designed to help Jigsaw's work continue despite John's failing health. Sadly, she lost her way and began designing inescapable traps. John tested her again, and she failed, dying in the process.

Not everyone who gets mixed up in Jigsaw's games is a particular target of his wrath. In some cases, they're just those close to the main test subject, such as the wife and daughter of Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). Dr. Gordon, of course, famously survived his test in the first Saw movie by sawing off his own foot. Meanwhile, his wife Alison and daughter Diana survived their own captivity at the hands of Zep, a man forced into working for Jigsaw. Lawrence would go on to survive and become another Jigsaw apprentice, as revealed in Saw 7.

Jeff Ridenhour is a very minor character in Saw lore, but still a memorable one. In Jeff's case, he didn't necessarily deserve to survive his Jigsaw test, but was saved by Detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung). Doing so led to dire consequences for the cops, though – so perhaps the tradeoff wasn't exactly fair.

Related: Saw 2's Venus Fly Trap Mask Was The First Hint At Dr. Gordon Twist

Daniel Matthews was tested much less due to his own petty crimes, and more because he was the son of Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg), an explosively violent cop who was Saw 2's primary Jigsaw target. Eric survived being placed in a group of people who had been wrongly convicted of crimes thanks to his father, but was then placed inside a safe to be used as leverage for Eric's test. Daniel survived, but Eric didn't come out intact.

Corbett Denlon and Judge Halden are two minor Saw 3 characters who were pulled into Jigsaw's games with Jeff Denlon in Saw 3. Halden was the man who gave the drunk driver that killed Jeff's son a light sentence. To save Halden, Jeff had to burn cherished mementos connected to his son. Halden later died trying to help Jeff save his son's killer from a trap. Corbett, Jeff's young daughter, was "saved" by Jigsaw apprentice Mark Hoffman after Jeff failed his test.

Easily the most dangerous and sadistic of Jigsaw's apprentices, Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) ended up working for John Kramer after faking a Jigsaw murder in order to kill the man who had taken his sister's life. Seeing Hoffman's potential, but not appreciating being ripped off, John offered him a chance to join the cause. Hoffman continued the games long after John's death but got tested for the first time himself via his own reverse bear trap thanks to John's widow, Jill. Hoffman survived and killed Jill, but later lost for good against Dr. Gordon.

FBI Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson), along with his partner Lindsey Perez, investigated the Jigsaw case, and both ultimately died as a result, but not before escaping at least one of Jigsaw's traps. Strahm instantly suspected Hoffman was in on things, and that didn't change following his own escape from a Jigsaw trap��that involved an improvised pen tracheotomy to avoid drowning in a box locked on his head. Still, his dogged pursuit of the truth cost him dearly, as he was later crushed to death by the encroaching walls of a room, while Hoffman smugly escaped the area.

Related: Why Saw Has The Greatest Horror Movie Twist Ending Of All Time

Strahm's partner Agent Perez survived a nasty Jigsaw trap involving an exploding puppet sending shrapnel into her face thanks to the efforts of Strahm himself. The FBI faked her death in order to try and get one over on John's still unidentified Jigsaw accomplice, although Perez eventually resurfaced, only to get stabbed to death by Hoffman when his crimes were revealed.

Art Blank (Justin Louis) was one of the featured Jigsaw test subjects in Saw 4, and was chosen due to his profession. Art was a lawyer, and one with a habit of defending clients who were guilty as sin and helping them escape justice. Art had been John's friend and business partner, but after a falling out, was forced to kill another man in order to survive a trap. He was then forced to help Jigsaw set up another game, only to later be shot by cop Daniel Rigg. Morgan was a related survivor, the wife of an abusive husband and father that Art had gotten off. She had to kill her husband to live and to set herself free in more ways than one.

Brit Stevenson (Julie Benz) was one of the main test subjects in Saw 5, a corrupt corporate executive who hired an arsonist to burn down an apartment building so that she could buy the property it sat on, not realizing people were inside at the time. None of the victims in Saw 5 were without sin, but Brit and Mallick Scott, the arsonist, managed to survive multiple traps on their way to victory and rescue by the FBI.

Tara and Brent Abbott were a quite innocent mother and son who got roped into Jigsaw's Saw 6 game, which revolved around heartless insurance executive William Easton. Easton denied their husband/father live-saving care, and after Easton survived his own tests, his fate was left up to them. Tara couldn't bring herself to kill Easton, but Brent did it, instead, in a rage over his father's death.

Related: Why The Most Disturbing Saw Trap Isn't Actually The Needle Pit

The corrupt exec William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) survived his own tests, although not without having to make agonizing decisions along the way, including which of his also mostly corrupt employees he would save. Easton's company had also denied John Kramer potentially life-saving treatment, thus his posthumous vendetta. William opted to save his secretary, Addy, as well as other subordinates, Shelby and Emily. He was also able to save his sister Pamela by completing his game, but couldn't survive the vengeful Abbots.

Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) became a successful self-help guru on the back of surviving a Jigsaw trap and then writing a book about it, or at least that's his claim. None of it is true, leading him to become the main test subject of Saw 7. Bobby has to watch his wife get roasted alive in a giant oven, although he does manage to escape with his own life. Joan is a very brief character in the franchise, a Jigsaw survivor whose story Bobby uses as inspiration for his lies.

In Saw 7, Bobby Dagen chaired a support group of Jigsaw survivors, although unlike him, their stories were real. Mallick Scott survived alongside Brit Stevenson in Saw 5, losing most of his blood in the process. Simone chopped off her own arm to survive a "pound of flesh" trap in Saw 6. Brad and Ryan had to choose between killing each other, or the girlfriend who had been cheating on them both, and they chose her. Sidney had to send her abusive boyfriend into lawnmower blades. Addy and Emily from Easton's company, were also group members, as were Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and Tara Abbott.

Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore) was an Army veteran and battlefield medic who was tested after his return to civilian life saw him mess up an X-ray and accidentally delay the diagnosis of John's cancer. Logan's trap went wrong, though, and since it was John's fault, he took pity on Logan and freed him. Grateful, Logan became an apprentice and conducted the games seen in 2017's Jigsaw.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw recently continued Jigsaw's legacy, albeit with a new killer and 100 percent less John Kramer. The only test survivor in Spiral is lead protagonist Zeke Banks (Chris Rock), seemingly the one honest cop in a corrupt department full of liars and killers. Granted, he clearly wasn't intended to die, as new killer William Schenk wanted them to join forces and clean up the city. Zeke is able to free himself from a handcuff trap similar to the one in the first Saw movie and ends up getting cut up by glass trying to save his old corrupt partner. Zeke lives, but his former police chief father isn't so lucky.

More: Spiral 2: What To Expect

Saw: Every Character Who Survived A Jigsaw Trap (And What Came Next) from https://ift.tt/3tUCVkh

[brokebandwagon]

Hi Ladies! Thanks for making the pod, I always enjoy it :) I do actually have a question - is Ryan O'Reilly cursed? Whenever I look up the Blues to see how he's doing, it turns out they've given up five goals to Laine or fired their coach or some other traumatic storyline. Is it normal for a player to switch teams three times and never experience joy?

Thanks for the support and sorry we missed answering your question on the pod! (Ironically, he did come up in our convo before recording). Since we’re taking a break from recording until after the hecticness of finals and the first half of December, we’ll answer this one digitally. Under the cut because we’re wordy bitches here.

Maia (I got here first and got all the low-hanging fruit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯):

Ryan O’Reilly, to say the least, is a very interesting man.

Both of his trades have been seen as foolhardy to the team trading him. It wasn’t so long ago that Sabres fans (us included) were laughing at the Avs for trading such a good player… only to stand in their place not a mere three seasons later coming to full realization (with St. Louis fans laughing at us).

When a player is traded twice in the span of 3 years despite putting up good points and being a solid 1-2 center, a faceoff machine, and quite defensively sound, that’s never a good sign. The question at that point falls not on a player’s production, but their character.

Now ROR is hardly a horrible person – not by a longshot. He’s actually a really nice guy, but perhaps not the best team player or moral builder. We talk about this in one of our earliest episodes from the summer (1.03, judging from our old outlines), but ROR is almost always going to fill the score sheet, get the assists, get the goals. The trade of ROR to St. Louis was never about the points or goals, and no matter what the Sabres were going to be losing the best player in the trade. But there’s a lot more things that make a team tick then just putting up the points; there’s also camaraderie and truly being not just a team, but a family.

That’s not to say that ROR was the sole reason for the Sabres locker room issues –that falls on a lot of players, some of whom were shipped out or left to free agency (Evander Kane, Lehner, Johnson…)– nor is it to say that shipping ROR solved all the problems (that would unfairly erase all the work the remaining players did over the summer and in pre-season with communication, opening up to each other, working to hold each other accountable). But there’s no denying that the ROR trade was first and foremost, a character move.

It’s hard to gauge how much of the whole ROR vs Eichel thing was true –Jack certainly denies it (as heard on Spittin Chiclets)– but there had to have been a grain of truth in there somewhere. Think of it this way, ROR was brought into the organization only slightly before Jack, he was hailed as a leader. He was expected to be. Jack was too, perhaps, in his own way, but he had quite a bit of growing up to do first. Fast forward to the point where Jack truly starts to mature, he has an A, Brian Gionta is gone and so is the C…

That creates a vacuum, and while it’s always good to have players step up… there’s a difference between stepping up and stepping on toes, and maybe there was a bit of stepping on toes there. Trading ROR eliminates that issue, the locker room and the team is Jack’s to have. So many things changed in the off-season that it’s difficult to pin down exactly what the biggest game changer was (it’s all of them, honestly), but there’s no denying the importance of handing the reins over fully to a young, eager core just bursting at the seams to finally prove itself.

ROR was hard on himself and the team — both good traits to have, but in moderation; he’d still have the downtrodden attitude after good games and wins (despite their rarity). And again, there’s a difference between realism, humbleness, and being a constant downer. As much as GMBOT and co claim that ROR’s locker cleanout comments of “losing the love of the game” and etc didn’t affect their choice to trade him, they certainly did make it a lot easier to do so. The Sabres core needed to be desperately shaken up, and ROR was a very ready choice, esp after saying that. There is that argument that ROR at 27 fell just outside the “young core” Botts is building between 18-23, but then again, Jeff Skinner is 26. (But look at Skinner: what does he bring along with his production? Positivity, hard work, good locker room presence).

We haven’t really been following ROR’s track all that closely on the Blues. He’s putting up the points, for sure, but the Blues? Not so hot. The Sabres surely thought that the 1st rounder they received for him would be a late first rounder, but it’s looking more and more to be a high pick. So who knows, maybe ROR is cursed, but it’s interesting how the Blues have fallen since their acquirement of him.

To answer your question though: Is it normal for a player to switch teams three times and never experience joy?

Maybe, it just depends on the player. Don’t think Matt Duchene is exactly having a blast either

Meghan here;

Going off of what Maia said earlier, I think it was pretty obvious that there was tension in the locker room. If you ask me, I think it was in regards to leadership. Jack was being primed to be The Leader™ in the locker room; he was the youngest player who had the A, guys often commented on how they needed him (especially when he was out for those 4 weeks with an ankle injury), etc. It’s also rumored (and I don’t know how credible this is, so take it with a grain of salt) that he was traded from Colorado in the first place because he and Duchene were feuding for leadership in the locker room as well.

Now, I do want to stress that wanting to be a leader in the locker room isn’t a fundamentally bad trait. We all know this, but I want to put it on the record. However, it is a bad trait when you aren’t able to lead with another person/people. If that’s the case with ROR, then…that’s toxic. Is ROR a toxic person? I doubt it. I’m sure that, had he not had his struggles with leadership, he would have been a great resource both in and out of the locker room. But, as we can clearly see, he did have those problems.

So, to restate what Maia said, I also believe that this was a character move. Something I think a lot of people tend to ignore is that you can have all the talent in the world, but if your locker room is toxic? If your players are warring behind the scenes, if your players can’t get along? That talent doesn’t matter. Ultimately, I believe there were a lot of different reasons why the Sabres were garbage last year, and toxicity in the locker room was, in my opinion, one of the biggest.

To actually answer your question: no, I don’t think ROR is “cursed”. However, I think he just has a mixture of extremely bad luck to get traded to teams headed towards the bottom, and his attitude probably doesn’t help.

Cassie:

I don’t think ROR is cursed, but I don’t think he’s great for a locker room. Moving him was not a product of his production but more of a need for a culture change. If all you’re exposed to is someone that is down and depressed, eventually that rubs off. Unless ROR has changed his stripes, it’s unlikely that his aura has changed. It’s possible that the negative aura is tainting the Blues, but it’s also possible that the Blues are just bad. They were trending downward last season and it’s possible that it has continued. The Blues have a CF%/60 of 50.56 and a CA%/60 of 45.46. I’d believe that these are impacted and look better than they actually are because of ROR’s production. Overall, it’s just a bad team getting even worse goaltending. Oddly, they’re missing Hutton more so than benefiting from ROR. I think with ROR it’s a situation where he’s gone from team to team to team and have caught all three teams in a downslide. Combine that with him taking things too hard on himself it’s a toxic situation. I really hope he seeks out a sports psychologist because it would do wonders on his outlook.

[junker-town]

2021 NFL Mock Draft: Complete first round

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

A complete first-round Mock Draft following the end of the regular season.

With the regular season in the rear view mirror we now turn our attention to the NFL Draft. There’s still a lot unknown about the format it will take, how the scouting combine will proceed (if at all), or whether the world will be in a place where we can have people attend live. But outside of those unknowns we do know what order non-playoff teams will be drafting, and today we dive into who may be selected.

No. 1: Trevor Lawrence, QB, Clemson — Jacksonville Jaguars

The sweepstakes are over, the dust has settled, and the Jaguars have won the prize. Quarterback definitely isn’t Jacksonville’s biggest need, and Gardner Minshew has played pretty well in 2020, but chances like this don’t come along very often.

Lawrence is the most polished, lock No. 1 QB since Andrew Luck entered the league in 2012. The Clemson passer has proven he can work under pressure, make plays, and be the face of a franchise for years to come. The Jaguars are lucky.

No. 2: Penei Sewell, OT, Oregon — New York Jets

There was seemingly no doubt the Jets would end up with Trevor Lawrence for much of the season, but wins took them out of the No. 1 pick conversation. It’s temping to simply shuffle them down a peg and take the next best quarterback, but deep down I think New York know that just taking quarterbacks is like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

Penei Sewell is a safe pick, and he’s ludicrously talented too. At the very least it’ll give the offense some support so they can determine if Sam Darnold has a future, or whether it’ll be time to cut bait in 2021.

No. 3: Devonta Smith, WR, Alabama — Miami Dolphins (via Texans)

The Dolphins are in one of the best positions in the NFL with a luxury almost nobody gets: Being a near-playoff team with a Top 3 pick. At this point Miami has its QB of the future, it has a solid base, now it’s time to get weapons.

Adding Devonta Smith is a dream come true. A receiver so good he’s Heisman worthy, with a history of working with Tua Tagovailoa. The handcuff is cute, but the pick makes too much sense. I think this is a piece of the puzzle that can really take the Dolphins to the next level.

No. 4: Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State — Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons have a lot of needs, especially in the secondary, but it’s important to realize all those comically blown leads also means this team is close as constructed. I don’t think Atlanta is really as bad as their record showed, so the smart move is to solidify the future.

Regime change is on the Falcons’ minds, but it doesn’t need to be immediate. Justin Fields could sit behind Matt Ryan for a year, get used to the NFL and get the development he needs to be ready to take over. It’s a great scenario for everyone involved, and getting a QB of this caliber without needing to trade is too good to pass up.

No. 5: Ja’Marr Chase, WR, LSU — Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals would love to get Sewell or Smith in this spot, but the draft didn’t quite break for them. It’s not like this is a sob story though, because Ja’Marr Chase is a heck of a player who we know has chemistry with Joe Burrow.

Chase totaled 1,780 yards and 20 touchdowns with Burrow at LSU in 2019. A.J. Green is getting older (and growing weary of the rebuild), the Bengals need to upgrade their receiving corps, and need to get Burrow more help. This pick fits all those needs.

No. 6: Micah Parsons, LB, Penn State — Philadelphia Eagles

Photo by William Purnell/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Philadelphia needs help in a lot of areas, and while wide receiver might be the biggest area that needs improvement, I don’t have the mock breaking in a way where it’s in the team’s best interest.

Pass rushing is a key need for the Eagles as well, and getting Parsons from their own backyard will help in that regard. Arguably the best pure pass rusher in the class, I don’t think him skipping the 2020 season will really hurt. I think it’s a trap to think Parsons can only excel in a 3-4 base defense, with coordinators getting more creative in using weapons. With a player this good you just take him, and work out how to slot him in later.

No. 7: Jaylen Waddle, WR, Alabama — Detroit Lions

Death. Taxes. The Lions taking first round receivers. I’m sure it’s a bummer that Detroit will have to settle for the third best in the class, but Jaylen Waddle fits what the team likes to do on offense.

A smaller, shiftier wide receiver, Waddle is a playmaker who just needs the ball in his hands to make an impact. That makes him a receiver who can fit with any quarterback, whether that’s Matthew Stafford or someone new.

No. 8: Kyle Pitts, TE, Florida — Carolina Panthers

I know there’s an allure to giving Carolina a quarterback here, especially with Zach Wilson still on the board, and Teddy Bridgewater looking like he’s not the guy, but ultimately I think Matt Rhule wants to get players he really believes in, and is willing to wait for them.

Years of Panthers success on offense were dictated by the receiving skills of Greg Olsen. Kyle Pitts has a similar skillset and could quickly become a league-defining tight end, among the best in the league. With the Panthers receivers set, I see this being a way to round out their offense, giving Bridgewater more time to prove if he can be the guy or not.

No. 9: Rashawn Slater, OT, Northwestern — Denver Broncos

Denver is a much better team on paper than a lot of people gave them credit for. Drew Lock is really developing into a nice quarterback, they have pieces on both side of the ball to make plays, but it’s the little things this team lacks that’s hurting them.

In a perfect world the Broncos would trade down a little with a team wanting a quarterback jumping up, but for the sake of this exercise I have they staying put and drafting a rangy, reliable offensive tackle to help fix their line. Rashawn Slater is an athletic, excellent tackle who won’t be a sexy pick, but it’ll be the right one.

No. 10: Caleb Farley, CB, Virginia Tech — Dallas Cowboys

Dallas wasn’t bad against the pass, in fact, far from it — but this is a need meets BPA pick that can’t be ignored. The Cowboys are facing massive turnover in their secondary this offseason, and are in dire need of help. That help comes in the form of the best defensive back taken.

Caleb Farley has speed, strength, excellent football IQ and an ability to make plays. Virginia Tech were confident enough to give him little help, and still he excelled. The NFC East will be a mess for a while, but Farley is a difference maker who could turn the tide.

No. 11: Kwity Paye, DT, Michigan — New York Giants

This might be the safest, most obvious pick of the first round outside of Trevor Lawrence going to Jacksonville. The Giants need an elite defensive tackle to round out their burgeoning defense, and general manager Dave Gettleman has an endless love of big tackles.

Kwity Paye had the power to hold the middle, and the skills to get into the backfield. He’s not dissimilar to Kawann Short, who Gettleman drafted in Carolina and quickly became of of their best defensive players. Paye has even more upside, and could be an anchor on the line for a long, long time.

No. 12: Zach Wilson, QB, BYU — San Francisco 49ers

Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images

It’s been so tempting to give Zach Wilson to numerous teams before, but here we are. The 49ers are at a crossroads. They’re a year removed from being one of the best teams in the NFL, and 2020 really derailed everything.

That also means there’s an opportunity here, much like Atlanta, to draft higher than they probably deserve. It’s unclear if Jimmy Garoppolo can stay healthy enough to be a franchise player, but if anyone can unlock Wilson in the NFL it’s Kyle Shanahan. The foundation is in place to make him succeed, now it’s time to execute.

No. 13: Wyatt Davis, OG, Ohio State — Los Angeles Chargers

This was supposed to be a full rebuilding year for Los Angeles. Very little was expected, and 2020 was mostly about getting Justin Herbert reps, and making him feel comfortable. However, nobody expected Herbert to be as good as he was this season, which pushes the priority completely on protecting Herbert.

Los Angeles really needs a tackle more than a guard, but the talent isn’t quite there. Wyatt Davis is versatile enough to play along the line, and helps solidify the middle. I know this is early for a guard, but Davis is worth it.

No. 14: Patrick Surtain II, CB, Miami — Minnesota Vikings

Goodness, where do we begin on this one? The Vikings need a lot of help on defense. In fact, they need a lot of help everywhere — but with questionable options on the OL I have them addressing the mammoth problems with the secondary.

Minnesota gutted its secondary for seemingly no reason, allowing talented players to walk and hurting the team in the process. Patrick Surtain II has the pedigree, and the talent to start fixing those issues.

No. 15: Mac Jones, QB, Alabama — New England Patriots

I have this being my obligatory draft “shocker.”

I know everyone has Trey Lance ranked higher, but I can’t shake the feeling that a late-career Bill Belichick won’t be that interested in taking on a project QB, especially with someone as reliable as Mac Jones available.

The ceiling is definitely lower, but he’s a safe, proven commodity. The Patriots have no quarterback to speak of at this point, and there’s a scenario here where Jones can start from Day 1. It’s not like the Patriots to take a QB early, but these are weird times.

No. 16: Alijah Vera-Tucker, OG, USC — Arizona Cardinals

Similar to the Chargers, the Cardinals would probably rather a tackle be on the board. There’s a good chance they go defense here, but we know Arizona is an offensive team first, and that’s where the priority is.

Alijah Vera-Tucker will hold the middle, protect Kyler Murray, and solidify the base. This team has sizzle, now this is a beef.

No. 17: Gregory Rousseau, EDGE, Miami — Las Vegas Raiders

It’s unheard of to have one of the best pure pass rushers in the draft go this low. That’s not a testament to Gregory Rousseau’s talent, but rather that other teams have bigger fish to fry.

Rousseau has the athleticism and speed we know Jon Gruden craves out of players, and he’s versatile enough to help across the board. A solid addition for a team that ranked 29th in sacks.

No. 18: Trey Smith, OG, Tennessee — Miami Dolphins

I’m a big time believer in Tua Tagovailoa, and don’t fully get why anyone is doubting him. At this point it’s all about putting gas on the fire, and after getting a top-tier receiver, now Miami can turn to helping the line and adding some protection.

This could easily be a tackle, like Christian Darrishaw or Jalen Mayfield, but ultimately I think this big, road-grading guard offers a little more top-end talent, something Miami needs.

No. 19: Christian Darrishaw, OT, Virginia Tech — Washington Football Team

Do you know who’ll quarterback this team in 2021? I sure don’t. Let that be a future problem.

Ron Rivera is a risk-averse head coach (despite his “Riverboat Ron” billing), and to that end I think Washington takes an excellent, unremarkable player who simply makes their team better.

No. 20: Jalen Mayfield, OT, Michigan — Chicago Bears

I have a hard time really knowing what the future holds for the Bears. Just when you think you have Mitchell Trubisky figured out, he wows you, then lets you down, then wows you again.

For now, I think Chicago banks on him being the guy for just a little longer. Part of that evaluation process involves getting him more protection, and Jalen Mayfield is a guy who can really help.

No. 21: Pat Freiermuth, TE, Penn State — Jacksonville Jaguars (via Rams)

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Young quarterbacks need tight ends.

With Trevor Lawrence locked down, Pat Freiermuth seems like an amazing option here. He’s such a talented blocker that it’s easy to confuse him with a sixth offensive lineman, and the dude can catch when needed. That provided a hell of a lot of safety for a rookie QB, and someone who he can grow, and rely on.

No. 22: Rondale Moore, WR, Purdue — Indianapolis Colts

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Rondale Moore definitely doesn’t have ideal size, but the Colts are used to working around that with T.Y. Hilton. This pick hinges entirely on whether Indianapolis brings back their top receiver, but even if they do, I think Moore is a solid pick.

A small, shifty receiver — he’s able to find gaps and make big plays, just like Hilton. This is a case where the team match could be all the difference, and I see Indianapolis being able to use him.

No. 23: Nick Bolton, LB, Missouri — Cleveland Browns

The Browns are back in the playoffs, and that’s glorious. The one thing this team still lacks is consistency. Sure, there’s a lot of excitement on both sides of the ball, but that tends to wax and wane from game to game.

Nick Bolton is the kind of player who will help solidify the defense, and allow players around him to shine. That’s a characteristic often underrated.

No. 24: Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, LB, Notre Dame — Baltimore Ravens

I don’t know where Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will end up in the NFL. Will he be a linebacker? Will he move to safety? It doesn’t really matter in the long run, as long as he goes to a team willing to embrace his talent.

Perhaps nobody is better suited to finding a place for him to play than the Ravens, who are less concerned with archetypes, as they are making plays. Owusu-Koramoah makes plays by the bunches, and I think that will be enough to get him into the first round. Heck, if he had a more solidified size I think he’d go Top 10.

No. 25: Christian Barmore, DT, Alabama — Tennessee Titans

The Titans are the best playoff team without a pass rush. Christian Barmore doesn’t exactly solve that problem, but he makes everyone’s line on the line easier.

Tennessee doesn’t really have a lot of needs outside of the defensive line, so let’s sort this out quickly.

No. 26: Rashod Bateman, WR, Minnesota — New York Jets (via Seahawks)

I’m applying a lot of the same logic here as I did the No. 2 pick. My money is on the Jets taking one more year under a new coach to evaluate Sam Darnold, and to do that effectively, he needs weapons.

Bateman is one of those guys who doesn’t burst off the screen with every play, but you see how many ways he can excel in the NFL. He’s similar to Michael Thomas in that way, and that’s a hell of a compliment.

No. 27: Trey Lance, QB, North Dakota State — Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tom Brady won’t last forever. In fact, he might not last another full season, depending on who you ask. There’s no doubt we’ve hit the twilight years of No. 12’s career, which means it’s time to have a plan in place once he’s gone.

Tampa Bay is still firmly in “win now” mode, but that doesn’t mean they should ignore the future. Trey Lance is a little raw, but if he can find his way in the NFL the sky is the limit. Give him a season to sit behind Brady and learn the NFL, and if that turns into a couple of years, you still know the future is secure.

No. 28: Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson — Pittsburgh Steelers

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

It’s so bizarre to see a Steelers team in the playoffs without a ground game identity. Pittsburgh has tried, and failed a few different experiments since saying goodbye to Le’Veon Bell, and now it’s time to fix the issue.

Travis Etienne isn’t the classic, bruising Steeler running back we’re used to, but we saw what the team was able to do with DeAngelo Williams as his career winded down. Etienne has elite speed at the position, and an ability to make plays from the backfield. Pittsburgh needs that.

No. 29: Derion Kendrick, CB, Clemson — New Orleans Saints

New Orleans may be living on borrowed time when it comes to quarterback, but this is too low to take a risk and the team is still too good. Getting a cornerback like Derion Kendrick helps keep the Saints competitive in the division, and shut down the next generation of quarterbacks entering the NFC South.

No. 30: Samuel Cosmi, OT, Texas — Buffalo Bills

At this point Buffalo is simply looking for the last pieces of the puzzle. They have the quarterback, the talent all over the roster, and getting some future protection for Josh Allen has to be the priority.

Samuel Cosmi might not have elite athleticism, but he’s incredibly smart. When you have an athletic quarterback like Allen you don’t need raw power, as much as you need someone who won’t make mistakes.

No. 31: Jevon Holland, S, Oregon — Green Bay Packers

Holland is a little difficult to project at the next level, but what he has can’t be taught: An innate ability to local, and play the ball in the air — paired with a willingness to take part in run defense.

A bit of a Swiss Army Knife player, Holland projects well into the Packers’ defense.

No. 32: Deonte Brown, OG, Alabama — Kansas City Chiefs

I cannot believe I’m having four guards go in the first round, but here we are. This is a talented position in 2021, loaded with good players, and I think the Chiefs have a knack for just getting great picks.

At a listed 6’4, 350, Brown is simply a monster of a man. He’ll eat up a lot of space, and time on the offensive line. When you have players like Patrick Mahomes and Clyde Edwards-Helaire they just need that time to get an edge. I think this is a sound, solid pick by a team already dominating.

[bthenoise]

ICYMI: Here Are 8 News Items You May Have Missed While Partying At Lollapalooza

Don’t you hate when you’re sent off to summer camp and you come back not knowing any of the latest gossip? Or how about you take a vacation to Hawaii, lose your phone in the ocean and miss out on some major news? Better yet, don’t you hate when you spend four days at a music festival with no service and find out after the fact that some huge news happened without you knowing? 

Well, we feel the same way. After traveling out to Lollapalooza last week and getting back late last night, we realized we missed out on some pretty big announcements. So in order to get back up to speed and let everyone know about all the awesome things happening in our scene, we thought we’d compile everything we may have missed into one, easy-to-read post.

Let us begin:

Motionless In White Announce Fall Headliner With We Came As Romans, After The Burial and Twiztid

It wouldn’t be fall without a headlining tour from spooktacular metalcore outfit Motionless In White! In support of their brand new album Disguise, Chris Motionless and co. will be hitting the road with We Came As Romans, After The Burial and Twiztid.

Kicking off September 27th and running until October 20th, Motionless In White’s Trick ‘r Treat Tour will be the can’t miss pre-Halloween event of the year. Tickets for the 18-date tour are on sale now and can be found here.   

Ice Nine Kills Team Up With Fit For A King, Light The Torch and More For Huge Headlining Tour

Following in the footsteps of Motionless In White, fellow horror-obsessed act and former Noise Presents artists Ice Nine Kills have just announced their very own fall headliner. 

Featuring Fit For A King, Light The Torch, Make Them Suffer and Awake At Last, Ice Nine Kills’ Octane Accelerator Tour will launch October 29th in Cleveland and conclude December 1st in New York City.  

Tickets for the highly anticipated trek are on sale now and can be found here.

Slipknot Share New Ear-Thumping Single “Birth Of The Cruel”  

Just a few days away from the release of their highly anticipated sixth studio album We Are Not Your Kind, metal juggernauts Slipknot have just dropped their third new single.

Titled “Birth Of The Cruel,” Slipknot’s latest is a hard-hitting track showcasing both Corey Taylor’s beloved melodic and heavy vocal range.    

To check out the track to get you ready for We Are Not Your Kind, be sure to watch the vertical video above. Afterward, make sure to pre-order Slipknot’s new album here.    

The Maine Prepare Immersive US Mirror Tour

Fresh off the very first and very successful Sad Summer Fest, The Maine has just revealed plans to get back out on the road starting October 21st. 

With plans to tour the United States in support of their brand new album You Are OK, The Maine is gearing up, as they put it, for their “most ambitious tour to date.”

Talking about the upcoming run, the band said, “The Mirror will take you through a new immersive experience, unlike anything we have done before.”

Tickets for the 27-date trek can be found here.  

The Story So Far Reveal West Coast Tour With The Frights, Hunny and More

After playing a handful of dates out on Disrupt Fest as well as two of the last-ever Vans Warped Tour shows, The Story So Far is going back out on tour later this fall.

Hitting the West Coast for 11 dates, The Story So Far will be touring with Epitaph signees The Frights and Hunny along with Pure Noise labelmates Just Friends.

To purchase tickets, head here.

Our Last Night Add I See Stars, The Word Alive and More To Upcoming Tour

Continuing with all the fall tour madness, Our Last Night has finally revealed who they will be taking out on their Let Light Overcome The Darkness Tour.

Starting November 5th in Houston, TX, Our Last Night will be joined by none other than I See Stars, The Word Alive and Ashland. 

Tickets for the 25-date tour are on sale now and can be found here.

Dayseeker Announce New Album, Share Lead Single “Sleeptalk”

Ahead of their upcoming tour with Wage War, Like Moths To Flames and Polaris, post-hardcore outfit Dayseeker has revealed plans to release a brand new album.

Titled Sleeptalk, Dayseeker’s fourth full-length album is set to hit stores September 27th via Spinefarm Records.

Talking about the upcoming album and newly released titled track, vocalist Rory Rodriguez said, “‘Sleeptalk’, as a single and album, is our proudest work to date. We’ve never felt more confident in our music than this very moment. The music video explores a toxic relationship with a couple who have separated but continue seeing one another after the fact. The underlying message is how we sometimes would rather live in misery than separate from someone we love so dearly.”

To pre-order Sleeptalk, head here.

01. Drunk 02. Crooked Soul 03. Burial Plot 04. Sleeptalk 05. The Embers Glow 06. The Color Black 07. Already Numb 08. Gates of Ivory 09. Starving To Be Empty 10. Crash and Burn

Funeral For A Friend Are Reuniting For A Special Benefit Show

Ending our recap on a positive note, we bring you some uplifting news from Funeral For A Friend. 

After disbanding back in 2016, the extremely influential post-hardcore act has announced two very special hometown benefit shows for their longtime fan Stuart ‘Big Stu’ Brothers.

The band took to social media to discuss their upcoming shows saying: 

“FFAF Family,

When we left the stage on May 21st 2016 at London’s Kentish Town Forum, we all agreed that it was the perfect way to end Funeral For A Friend. We’d toured the UK one last time, playing some of the biggest shows we’d performed in years, in front of our friends and families. It was the perfect ending. Since then, we’ve been asked many times – ‘do you think you’ll ever come back?’ and the answer has always been a resounding ‘no’ because there was never any reason to.

Until now.

Recently, a man who can quite legitimately lay claim to being the world’s biggest FFAF fan (both literally and figuratively!), our friend Stuart ‘Big Stu’ Brothers, has been stricken with a terrible illness which has ultimately led to a terminal prognosis. Last month, Stu was given a few short weeks to live by his doctors.

As Stu’s friends, we wanted to do something to help; particularly for his family and 3 young sons who are going through unspeakable trauma right now. We discussed the possibility of auctioning off some FFAF memorabilia (which we’ll still do), but it became apparent that the way in which we could best help Stu was to perform some fundraising shows, with the proceeds going directly to his family.

So, on October 28th and 29th, at the Cardiff Globe and London Shepherd’s Bush Empire respectively, Funeral for a Friend will be performing two more shows to benefit the Brothers family.

Being that Stu was an old-school fan right from the very start, we will mainly be performing material from the early part of our career circa 2002-2007. Joining Matt, Kris, Gav and Rich for the shows will be guitarist Darran Smith (who left the band in 2010) and drummer/vocalist Ryan Richards, who left in 2012.

Tickets will be available from Wednesday for O2 Priority Customers, and on general sale from Friday at 10am GMT. All information can be found at:

www.funeralforafriend.co.uk

Additionally, a fundraising page has been set up for Stu’s family here:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ForBigStu

If you can, please give generously to a great man and a great cause.

Thank you, and we’ll see you in October.

Matt, Kris, Gav, Rich, Darran and Ryan.

FFAF.”

For more info from Funeral For A Friend, head here.

WATCH MORE:

[aion-rsa]

Where to Watch Chadwick Boseman Movies

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The late Chadwick Boseman made just 15 films before his shocking, devastating death last week from colon cancer. But many of those 15 movies (one, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, is coming soon from Netflix) had already left an undeniable and in some cases massive impact on cinema, even before becoming the permanent legacy of an incredible actor taken from us far too soon.

Not only did his portrayal of King T’Challa in Marvel’s Black Panther and three other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries change film history itself, but he brought some of the most important figures in both Black and American culture to the screen. Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall were American heroes of gigantic stature, and Boseman managed to introduce them to new generations of viewers through his sensitive, complex portrayals.

By all accounts, Chadwick Boseman wanted each of his roles to mean something. He wanted to tell the story of Black history and push that story forward every time he stepped in front of a camera. While so much of his filmography achieved that, there was clearly much more than this gifted artist was going to give us had he lived. You can see his power, his decency, his dignity and his charisma in every frame of the work we have, and fortunately it’s almost all available to us. Sadly, it will have to be enough.

Universal Pictures

The Express: The Ernie Davis Story (2008)

Chadwick Boseman had appeared on a handful of TV programs before landing his first role in a theatrical feature. While his role as a young version of real life Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little was relatively minor, it did presage Boseman’s star turns in later sports movies like 42 and the fictional Draft Day. As for The Express itself, the story of Ernie Davis — the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy — was sadly a box office disappointment despite good reviews, but might be rediscovered now.

Available on Amazon

101 Films

The Kill Hole (2012)         

It was four years before Boseman showed up on the big screen again, in a military thriller with Peter Greene and Billy Zane. It’s significant because it’s Boseman’s first lead role in a film: he plays Lt. Samuel Drake, an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD who is tasked by intelligence operatives to track down and kill another Iraq vet who’s gone off the deep end. The low-budget entry only holds a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but completists may want to see what Boseman was doing before he landed his breakout gig.

Available on Amazon

Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) acknowledges the crowd in 42.

42 (2013)            

The film that first got Boseman the attention he deserved as a major upcoming talent is only the second theatrical feature (after 1950’s The Jackie Robinson Story, which starred Robinson himself) to tell the historic story of the first African-American baseball player to make it to the major leagues.

Boseman is full of strength, presence and grace, and he plays beautifully off Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey in one of that actor’s best latter-day performances. An inspirational, moving film.

Available on Amazon

Summit Entertainment

Draft Day (2014)              

Boseman followed up 42 with another sports drama, this time a fictional tale of how Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) makes an unexpected first draft pick in linebacker Vontae Mack (Boseman) and must deal with the aftermath of that. Boseman’s role is a supporting one here and he’s fine in it, while the film itself may be enjoyable for NFL fans but a bit confusing for general viewers. There was better to come in 2014 from the actor.

Available on Amazon

Universal Pictures

Get on Up (2014)

Boseman lights up the screen in this biopic of the legendary James Brown, doing all his own dancing and even some singing as the Godfather of Soul. The movie itself, directed by Tate Taylor (The Help) is not perfect, playing with different narrative structures and omitting a number of incidents from Brown’s life. But the main attraction is once again Boseman, who doesn’t so much imitate Brown as inhabit his wild, untamed, often troubled spirit.

Available on HBO Max

Lionsgate

Gods of Egypt (2016)      

This half-baked fantasy saga set in ancient Egypt is probably among the low points of Boseman’s career, not the least because of the whitewashing controversy surrounding some of the casting. Boseman himself took the role of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, to make sure there was a person of African descent in the mix, but even his usual dignity can’t save this CG-addled mess.

Available on Amazon

Disney

Captain America: Civil War (2016)             

When Marvel revealed Boseman as the man who would play T’Challa/Black Panther at a 2014 fan event, it seemed like the most natural pick in the world. And it proved to be right off the bat: Boseman’s introduction in the role in Civil War was electrifying, with the actor showing off not only his action chops but the regality and force of personality necessary to play the young king of the Afro-futuristic nation of Wakanda. His turn in Civil War only whetted the fans’ appetites for what was to come.

Available on Disney+

Netflix

Message from the King (2016)     

Jacob King (Boseman) travels from Cape Town, South Africa to Los Angeles to find out what happened to his sister, ultimately embarking on a mission to avenge her death against a seedy backdrop of gangs, politics and depraved Hollywood producers. Boseman was also an executive producer on the project, which was directed by Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz, who made the brutal Calvaire in 2004.

Available on Netflix

Open Road Films

Marshall (2017) 

Boseman’s last portrayal of a major Black figure in American history was underseen at the time of its release and will hopefully get some revived attention now (albeit under terrible circumstances). Director Reginald Hudlin and writers Jacob and Michael Koskoff focus on the early years of the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, and while that unfortunately leaves out some of his titanic later accomplishments, the movie is still a gripping courtroom drama that shows a giant in the making.

Available on: Amazon

Disney

Black Panther (2018)       

What can be said about Black Panther that hasn’t already been said? Thrilling, game-changing, and historic, the first superhero film not just led by a person of color but steeped wholly in African culture was a magnificent achievement in nearly every way. You can feel the passion from director Ryan Coogler in every frame, and a dazzling cast is led powerfully by its King, who embodies T’Challa in such a wholly formed way that he will always be associated with the character.

Available on Disney+

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

With so many characters to juggle in Marvel’s all-in clash against Thanos, it was inevitable that some got less to do than others. T’Challa plays a key role in corralling Wakanda’s armies to stand against the Mad Titan in the latter half of the film, and Boseman again brings a formidable presence even with less to do. Yet it’s no accident that some of the loudest gasps in the audience came when T’Challa was dusted at the end of the film — only hammering home just what an impact he had already made on the MCU.

Available on Disney+

Disney

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

With most of the Avengers and their allies dematerialized until the closing sequences of the movie, T’Challa is not much of a factor in the events of Endgame. But as with the audience reaction to his dusting in Infinity War, the response when he, Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) are the first to emerge from a portal to join the final fight remains a high point of seeing Endgame with an audience. It is beyond sad that we’ll never get to see Boseman in the role again.

Available on Disney+

Matt Kennedy/STX Films

21 Bridges (2019)             

A good cast and interesting premise — Boseman plays a detective who shuts down all 21 bridges on and off the island of Manhattan to catch two cop-killers — can’t save this film from being just average. Boseman is unfortunately given little to work with in terms of his character. The movie boasts a handful of striking action and chase sequences, but ultimately ends up as a rather generic thriller.

Available on Amazon (coming to Showtime Sept. 5)

Netflix

Da 5 Bloods (2020)          

Boseman’s Norman Earl “Stormin’ Norm” Holloway is only seen leading his squadron in Viet Nam during flashbacks in Spike Lee’s messy but often brilliant war drama. But his presence is the linchpin on which this powerful, poignant story rests, as the surviving members of that squad head back to the country decades later to find Holloway’s remains (and a buried stash of gold). This searing commentary on war through the filter of the Black experience is likely to be a major Oscar contender.

Available on Netflix

The post Where to Watch Chadwick Boseman Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

2018 National League Fantasy Baseball Predictions

Rhys Hoskins is ready to lead a young Phillies team on a playoff run (AP Photo).

National League East   1. Washington Nationals 2. Philadelphia Phillies (Wild Card) 3. New York Mets 4. Atlanta Braves 5. Miami Marlins

Comments/Fantasy predictions: Stephen Strasburg finishes with more fantasy value than Max Scherzer, while Ryan Zimmerman reverts to his injury-riddled ways. Gio Gonzalez isn’t a top-50 fantasy starter, and Michael Taylor goes 20/20…Aaron Nola is a top-10 fantasy SP, while Rhys Hoskins emphatically proves last year was no fluke, as he leads the National League in homers. Scott Kingery, Aaron Altherr, Jorge Alfaro and J.P. Crawford are other young, intriguing talents possibly ready to make big leaps. Nick Pivetta and Vince Velasquez both have upside. The Phillies also have a fascinating new manager and an underrated bullpen, so with the second NL Wild Card seemingly up for grabs, and baseball being such a crapshoot once the postseason starts, the Phillies are my favorite long shot bet of the season.

I worry about Michael Conforto’s ability to return from that injury, but THE BAT projects 30 homers over just 480 at bats and an .884 OPS that would rank top-20 in MLB, so he very well could prove to be a major difference maker in fantasy leagues given his modest ADP…Steven Matz and Matt Harvey both fail to bounce back, but Noah Syndergaard is a universal first round fantasy pick in 2019, a year in which we can only hope the term “helium” is used slightly less frequently.

[Batter up: Join a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for free today]

Freddie Freeman easily finishes with more fantasy value than Paul Goldschmidt, while A.J. Minter is drafted as a top-five closer in 2019. Ronald Acuna wins NL Rookie of the Year in a unanimous vote and is a top-20 fantasy outfielder despite starting the year in the minors…Lewis Brinson struggles to hit .240, while Cameron Maybin records 40+ steals, and Kyle Barraclough notches 30+ saves.   National League Central

1. Chicago Cubs 2. St. Louis Cardinals (Wild Card) 3. Pittsburgh Pirates 4. Milwaukee Brewers 5. Cincinnati Reds   Comments/Fantasy predictions: Jose Quintana finishes with the most fantasy value on Chicago’s staff, while Brandon Morrow is a top-10 closer. Jon Lester goes down as a bust, but Addison Russell busts out at age 24, as he and teammates Javier Baez and Ian Happ all finish with more fantasy value than Elvis Andrus…Dominic Leone is the Cardinals RP to own, while Jose Martinez goes down as one of the biggest draft day steals of 2018 and Jack Flaherty as one of the best last round picks. Go here for my more detailed Cardinals team preview.

Jameson Taillon finally lives up to the hype, but it’s Joe Musgrove who’s ultimately the most profitable Pirates player. Start cheap base stealers in DFS when facing the Tyler Glasnow/Francisco Cervelli battery…Jonathan Villar is the biggest boom-or-bust pick in fantasy drafts, and I own very few shares. There will be one FAAB period this year in which Josh Hader is the clear top prize. Orlando Arcia is one of my favorite sleepers, while Christian Yelich, who goes from a home park that greatly suppresses lefty power to arguably the second-most favorable in MLB (behind only Yankee Stadium), returns borderline first round value.

Scott Schebler batted .198/.298/.387 at home last year in a terrific hitter’s park, especially for lefties. It probably means nothing, but he’s awfully cheap in drafts for someone who just hit 17 homers with an .885 OPS over 251 at bats on the road. I love the idea of Jose Peraza, but I’m afraid he simply can’t hit (he’s also 0-for-3 on SB attempts this spring, for what it’s worth). Billy Hamilton leads MLB in steals, while Luis Castillo is a top-15 fantasy SP, with only a lack of wins and innings preventing him from being higher. The Giants traded away Castillo for Casey McGehee, who produced a .213/.275/.299 line for them over 127 at bats.

National League West   1. Los Angeles Dodgers 2. Arizona Diamondbacks 3. Colorado Rockies 4. San Francisco Giants 5. San Diego Padres   Comments/Fantasy predictions: Cody Bellinger joins Mike Trout and Bryce Harper as the only players to hit 35+ homers with 10+ steals, while Yasiel Puig finishes as a top-20 outfielder. On a team absolutely loaded with talent, L.A. also has some real interesting sleepers in Austin Barnes, Walker Buehler, Logan Forsythe, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Joc Pederson. Clayton Kershaw puts his back issues behind him and wins the Cy Young and the MVP. He’s the No. 2 overall player on my board.

Zack Greinke has velocity question marks; the Diamondbacks have yet to officially name a closer (Archie Bradley hasn’t been used in save situations in spring, for what it’s worth); and pretty much all Arizona hitters have plenty of reason to be faded with the team’s introduction of a humidor, so this isn’t the greatest situation for fantasy owners. Arguably the biggest fantasy story entering 2018 is how Chase Field will now play. Here’s my longer Diamondbacks team preview. 

Jonathan Gray would be at the top of my breakout list if he didn’t call Coors Field home, but at least he’ll have strong bullpen and run support. Chris Iannetta hits more homers than Buster Posey, while DJ LeMahieu wins the NL batting title. Carlos Gonzalez is undervalued at draft tables, and Trevor Story paces all shortstops with 35 homers, as few players outperform their ADP more in 2018.   Perhaps no one is hurt more by his home park than Brandon Belt (15.2 HR/FB% career on the road versus 8.2% at home), and an already thin San Francisco team took major hits with injuries to Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija. It could be another long year in the Bay Area…Dinelson Lamet’s injury is a buzzkill, while Manuel Margot finishes with more fantasy value than Wil Myers. Tyson Ross is a candidate for comeback player of the year and a deep sleeper currently owned in just two percent of Yahoo leagues.

Be sure to check out my American League preview coming soon. 

Follow the Yahoo fantasy baseball crew on Twitter: Andy Behrens, Dalton Del Don, and Scott Pianowski

[sumukhcomedy]

#XFL2020: Welcome to Make Football Great Again!

Yesterday, WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon announced that the XFL will be returning in 2020. Splashed with the league's revitalized and actually less “xtreme” logo behind it, McMahon gave a cryptic announcement almost as bizarre looking as Donald Trump's following the Access Hollywood tape revelation. But the reality here is that McMahon's desire to bring back the XFL caters to both he and Donald Trump's interests and that this new XFL will be in no way like the old one.

In order to look back at the history of the XFL, it's only really necessary to watch one game: the first one. This game actually drew high ratings when it premiered and I re-watched it a few months ago because I sometimes have nothing better to do than remember the XFL.

The problem with the XFL was that McMahon couldn't get himself away from his WWE roots. Immediately, The Rock is cutting a promo to introduce the league. At 17:30, quarterback Ryan Clement and a team cheerleader cut easily the most awkward promo I've ever seen likely because Ryan Clement is a quarterback who has never cut a promo and the cheerleader is a cheerleader who has never cut a promo and they likely just met that day and now have to try to sell what’s basically a sketch with sexual overtones. By the end of this game, McMahon removed young play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian (who shed off this horrible experience to become a respected announcer who just joined ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball team) from the main broadcasting team for his refusal to make “enthusiastic commentary” about the cheerleaders dancing with men in the crowd (go to 40:14 in the video to hear Vasgersian wait for 15 seconds before saying “I feel uncomfortable”). As much as McMahon wanted the league to be tougher and crazier, he went backwards in allowing the XFL to be like the “Attitude Era,” and not surprisingly, there are a chunk of football fans and Americans who have no interest or even scoff at pro wrestling. Where McMahon deserves credit is that concepts like the X Cam and cameras in locker rooms are now used in the NFL and have become the norm.

Why is the XFL returning when it was perhaps only less embarrassing for McMahon than the Val Venis “choppy choppy your pee pee” storyline on RAW? McMahon sees an opening with the general public's anger in America let alone towards the National Anthem. He also has always long been poised to upend the NFL and seek revenge for this XFL loss. However I think it lies much deeper than that.

McMahon and Trump have obvious ties dating back to the 1980s. They rivaled each other in a “Battle of the Billionaires” match at Wrestlemania 23. Linda McMahon, Vince's wife, donated $7 million to pro-Trump PACs and was ultimately chosen to lead the Small Business Administration under the Trump administration. Over the past year, Trump went on the attack against the NFL and professional athletes in other sports over kneeling during the National Anthem or not visiting the White House. In the same way that “Make America Great Again” found an audience among angry whites feeling they've lost whatever America they feel they grew up in or expect it to be so too does the XFL likely feel it could hit these same people and others in its return.

It's no coincidence that the XFL will kick off in 2020. Yes, McMahon's first incarnation was haphazardly put together so he can posit this 2020 kickoff as being related to taking the right amount of time to get a proper league in place. But it also makes sense that the XFL will arrive just in time for Trump's re-election campaign where this National Anthem controversy will still be in the President's back pocket to bring up. McMahon's commentary already appealed to the base. A coded phrase like “family friendly” means players will definitely stand for the anthem. The WWE has long pushed itself as an organization tied to veterans and the military and so the XFL will continue to do that as well. McMahon even used the phrase “conservatively” in his announcement. While McMahon says the league will be “fan first,” that likely just means that the league will primarily appeal to fans that side with Trump's perspective and hope to grab independent football viewers purely interested in the entertainment of the game. 

The XFL has really no plans in place other than this announcement and it hasn't decided which cities it will be in. It's a little odd since the XFL did exist and has some kind of a history where perhaps it would return to the same cities and teams it once had. But I believe that the XFL is aligning itself politically as well so I would not be surprised if a majority of the cities that get selected are in historic swing states on the electoral map. It allows for Trump 2020 and #XFL2020 to work hand-in-hand. I would expect at least New York or Los Angeles to get a team since they are the biggest markets in the nation and can appeal to the coasts. But then I believe the remaining cities will be selected from a pool along these lines: Las Vegas, Denver, a Florida city, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Detroit, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Charlotte. It caters to the major cities of swing states. It also makes the XFL feel more like a Midwest and South league which is both in McMahon's wheelhouse given the history of wrestling was based in territories and those areas of the nation have some of the biggest popularity when it comes to wrestling and a platform for Trump's re-election.

It's a nice notion that McMahon sees this league as “fan first” but any wrestling fan can tell you that McMahon has never been about the fans. He's about the dollar signs associated with the fans but not necessarily fan perspective. It took undersized Daniel Bryan pretty much winning over every fan to have Vince grant him with the WWE title. Vince turned the WWE more “family friendly” to appeal to his wife's Senate candidacy than he did with what wrestling purists would have liked. The music choices for Wrestlemania and some of the other PPVs have always seemed years behind relevancy. Vince is still Vince and the XFL is more “Make Football Great Again” than it is something that will provide a forward-thinking alternative to the football fan.

Nevertheless, I'm likely going to watch Week One much like I did with the first incarnation of the XFL. That's what McMahon knows he can grab at: the regular football fan interested in at least seeing what the carnival event has to offer. That first game in 2001 was so bad that I didn't watch the league again (and neither did so many others as ratings tanked almost immediately). Could it win me and other football fans over? It's possible but the league would have to address the biggest issues for football fans that actually care: be safer and have an actual concussion protocol that gets followed, have disciplinary action that makes sense especially in cases of domestic violence, don't make fans feel like they are dollar bills that don't matter, have some forward-thinking ideas for the game that contrast the NFL, and produce an entertaining product. Is the XFL likely to do that? Decades of history of how the WWE has operated makes me think it won’t happen. 

The XFL happened in large part because McMahon was able to work alongside longtime friend Dick Ebersol to put it on NBC. There is no way in hell that NBC will be putting the XFL on their air again because of the embarrassment of it the first time and now Trump's commentary and criticism of the network. So it seems likely that the XFL will devolve to being aired on FOX News or some other such network as evidenced by FOX News already covering the XFL announcement and caring about the National Anthem issue. If you wanted to win over football fans that care like myself, this isn't the way to do it. I don't want to watch football that was the dream of Rush Limbaugh just like I don't want to watch football that was the dream of Gloria Steinem. I just want to watch football that appreciates and advances the game, a game which has many current issues that make me not particularly happy with myself that I’m supporting it. 

I expect there to be few if any remnants of what the XFL once was in this new version. The last one was an embarrassment to McMahon and so he won't do anything to connect these two. But, personally, as an unbiased football fan, I expect this new XFL to be an embarrassment in a different way: as a wing to an initiative of a presidential re-election campaign.

[yahoo-from-the-marbles-blog]

NASCAR Power Rankings: Is Harvick or Truex worthy of the top spot?

Welcome to Power Rankings. As always, Power Rankings are far from a scientific formula. In fact, it’s the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. Direct all your complaints to us at nickbromberg@yahoo.com and we’ll try to have some fun.

1. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 2): Pause for a second and consider just how dominant Truex has been that there are now wonders if he’s vulnerable at Homestead after he was passed for the lead with less than 10 laps to go while going for his fifth-straight win at a 1.5-mile track.

While Truex clinched his way into the title race at Homestead via points despite finishing second, losing to Harvick has to sting just a little bit. Harvick, along with Kyle Busch, has emerged as one of the few drivers who has been able to stay in the same zip code as Truex on 1.5-mile tracks. And now Truex is going to be facing both of them for the title. Truex is still the favorite for the title, but his “overwhelming favorite” status may simply now be “major favorite.”

Who will be the fourth driver that joins them?

2. Kevin Harvick (LW: 7): As we noted last week, Harvick entered Sunday with a great record of success at Texas but hadn’t scored a win there. He’s winless no longer, thanks to that pass of Truex.

“I think as you look at the season, your ultimate goal is to wind up at Homestead with an opportunity to win the championship,” Harvick said. “I think if you look at the way the year has gone, you would expect to race [Truex] and [Busch] for the championship.  I think everything from there was kind of a little bit of an unknown.

“When we had Kyle [Busch] on the outside looking in, I think everybody was a little bit surprised.  When [Larson] was eliminated, that was definitely a little bit of a surprise.  I feel like if [Larson] was still in the mix, he has so much confidence going into Homestead, he feels like that’s his best racetrack.  I think he would have been hard to beat down there.

3. Brad Keselowski (LW: 5): If Keselowski ends up being the fourth driver joining Busch, Harvick and Truex — and subsequently wins the title — his Texas comeback is going to be a thing of lore.

Keselowski suffered a cut tire on first-corner contact from Busch. He then got the lap back midway through the race and clawed his way all the way back to fifth.

If he isn’t the fourth driver that makes the playoff field and Denny Hamlin or Ryan Blaney is, then Texas will still be a what-if race for Keselowski. Because he didn’t earn any points in the first or second stages, Keselowski got just 32 points overall. Hamlin (19 points back of Keselowski for fourth) got 47. Blaney, (22 points back) got 42. The significance of stage points can really undercut the previous value of a late-race comeback.

4. Denny Hamlin (LW: 4): If Hamlin misses out on Homestead, Martinsville will be to him what Texas would be like to Keselowski if he misses out. Hamlin finished seventh at Martinsville — even has he spun on the final corner — but got just 31 points. If he had scored five stage points in each of the first two stages at Martinsville he’s looking at just a nine-point gap to the 2 car heading into Phoenix.

5. Kyle Busch (LW: 1): Ultimately, the contact between Busch and Keselowski was inconsequential for Busch because of his status as Martinsville winner. But it’s also fair to think that Busch would have liked to see how he stacked up to Truex and Harvick in the final 1.5-mile race before Homestead. Busch ended up finishing 19th.

6. Ryan Blaney (LW: 6): Like Hamlin, Blaney is currently on the good isn’t good enough third round track. he finished sixth at Texas after finishing eighth at Martinsville. If he somehow misses out on the final round of the playoffs by a few points at Phoenix, it’ll be fair to wonder just how consequential NASCAR’s curious — and from what we’ve found, obviously wrong — decision to put Clint Bowyer ahead of him on the second-to-last restart at Martinsville was.

7. Chase Elliott (LW: 3): Going from 34th to 8th at a tricky track is an impressive feat. Elliott also did it pretty quickly — he scored three more points than Keselowski did.

8. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 8): With the 2014 and 2015 Cup Series champions racing for the title at Homestead in two weeks, will the 2013 and 2016 champion join them as well? Probably not. After a bizarre showing at Texas where Johnson’s car was off all day and crew chief Chad Knaus didn’t take advantage of an early wave-around opportunity to get a lap back, Johnson has to win at Phoenix to get in to the championship round.

Johnson won three-straight fall races at Phoenix from 2007-09. He hasn’t won at the track since it was repaved in 2011.

9. Matt Kenseth (LW: 9): Kenseth finished fourth on Sunday, his first race since going public with the inevitable news that he wouldn’t be racing anywhere in 2018 and potentially beyond. Kenseth going out quietly the same year as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and (potentially) Danica Patrick leave the sport is quite Kensethian.

10. Kurt Busch (LW: NR): Busch set a track record at Texas with his qualifying lap on Friday, but it’s fair to question if his lap — or any laps run Friday, for that matter — was actually faster than the previous track record held by Tony Stewart. When Texas widened out turns 1 and 2, it made the track shorter when drivers follow the inside line. Busch finished 9th.

11. Kasey Kahne (LW: 11): A week after he was 11th in Power Rankings, Kahne finished 11th at Texas. Synergy.

12. Joey Logano (LW: NR): Logano’s seventh-place finish at Texas ties the best finish he’s had at a 1.5-mile track since he was third at Texas in the spring.

Lucky Dog: Erik Jones finished 10th and is within striking distance of Clint Bowyer for 18th in the standings.

The DNF: Kyle Larson is not having a good stretch.

Dropped out: Bowyer, Larson

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @NickBromberg

[everettwilkinson]

NEW BUDGET NUMBERS on INDIVIDUAL MANDATE expected MONDAY and savings expected to shrink — WHAT TRUMP is doing in HAWAII — BUSHES unload on TRUMP — OBAMA's post-presidency letter — WEEKEND READS — B’DAY: Ben Smith

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — SOME HEALTH CARE/TAX NEWS — THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE is expected to release a new report MONDAY detailing the budgetary impact if Congress were to repeal the individual mandate as part of tax reform. House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady told us that it was a priority for President Donald Trump — Trump has called him twice and mentioned it in person once. Insiders estimate repealing the mandate would bank $400 billion in savings. But the new estimate is expected to be far less, which might make it less attractive to include gutting the provision as part of tax reform.

— Here’s how Brady put it to us yesterday during a Playbook Interview: “There are pros and cons to this. Importing health care into a tax reform debate has consequences, especially one where the Senate has yet to produce 50 votes on anything related to health care that I’m aware of. And so there is all those considerations to think about as we’re looking at this. So, no decisions have been made. We’re listening to the members, and certainly the president, as well.”

Story Continued Below

BULLETIN at 7:13 a.m.: “BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri says he is resigning as premier, blames Iran for meddling in Arab affairs.” AP’s story http://bit.ly/2h6gCF7

YOWZA! — NYT’s PETER BAKER — “President Trump is not a favorite in the extended Bush household. Former President George Bush considers him a ‘blowhard,’ only interested in feeding his own ego. Former President George W. Bush, his son, thinks Mr. Trump fans public anger and came to office without any understanding of the job. … In ‘The Last Republicans,’ Mark K. Updegrove chronicles an era that feels almost dated in today’s reality-show politics, when the Republican establishment controlled the party and Washington, and when a single family could occupy the presidency and vice presidency for a combined 20 years. …

“Neither of the two Republican former presidents voted for Mr. Trump — the father voted for Hillary Clinton and the son voted for ‘none of the above,’ as he told Mr. Updegrove. Indeed, at one point during the 2016 presidential campaign, the younger Mr. Bush confided to the author, ‘I’m worried that I will be the last Republican president.’ …

“In discussing Mr. Trump, the elder president was blunter. ‘I don’t like him,’ Mr. Bush said in May 2016. ‘I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.’ Rather than being motivated by public service, Mr. Bush said Mr. Trump seemed to be driven by ‘a certain ego.’” http://nyti.ms/2A6YXEU … Pre-order — $19.49 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2hbgx79

THE TRUMP ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY STORIES BEGIN — “Trump’s year of anger, disruption and scandal,” by Annie Karni and Eliana Johnson: “It was after midnight on Nov. 9, 2016, and Donald Trump was sitting at the kitchen table of his Trump Tower penthouse. …

“‘Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division.’ He paused. ‘To bind? To heal? Which is better?’ he asked his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who was hovering close by. It was the mirror image of the scene unfolding in Hillary Clinton’s hotel room, where the Democratic nominee had a victory speech ready to go, but no concession to deliver. Trump had been glued to the television, watching what was supposed to be Clinton’s Javits Center victory party — and taking note of the shocked faces in the crowd.

“‘I think he was aware of how unexpected this was,’ said his longtime aide, Hope Hicks, now the White House communications director, explaining the un-Trumpian unity rallying cry. ‘He wanted to give a speech that would de-escalate everything and, while the whole world was watching, be a leader for all.’ Onstage, Trump would say: ‘To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.’ It was a glimpse of a presidency that could have been.” http://politi.co/2AjqKTp

****** A message from BP: We sell enough natural gas to meet the daily needs of every home in the U.S. Check out what else we’re doing across the country. ******

HARASSMENT FALLOUT — “Congressional leaders call for sexual harassment training,” by AP’s Erica Werner and Juliet Linderman: “On Friday, Ryan sent lawmakers a letter urging them to undergo sexual harassment training and make it mandatory for their staffs. ‘Any form of harassment has no place in this institution. Each of us has a responsibility to ensure a workplace that is free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,’ wrote Ryan, R-Wis. ‘We can and should lead by example.’ House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called for passage of Democratic-sponsored legislation that would require anti-harassment training, enhance anti-retaliation protections for staffers who report harassment, and streamline dispute resolution.” http://bit.ly/2zeaiUt … AP’s original investigation on sexual harassment on the Hill http://bit.ly/2zeKnOC

POLITICO FLORIDA — “Six women accuse Florida Senate budget chair Latvala of groping, sexual harassment,” by Marc Caputo, Matt Dixon and Alexandra Glorioso in Tallahassee: “Six women who work in Florida’s Capitol say the state Senate’s powerful budget chairman, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Latvala, has inappropriately touched them without their consent or uttered demeaning remarks about their bodies. …

“Latvala, in an interview on Friday with POLITICO Florida, pointed to the fact that in 16 years in the Senate he has never had a complaint filed against him. ‘The Senate provided you with a letter that I have never had a complaint filed against me in 16 years,’ said Latvala. ‘I’m sure that you have handpicked people and you are going to let anonymous people have this kind of impact on the career of a guy who has been there for 16 years,’ he said. ‘I’ve never had a complaint filed against me.’ ‘Govern yourself accordingly,’ he told a POLITICO Florida reporter.” http://politi.co/2hbzmXD

ON PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S MIND — @realDonaldTrump at 8:35 a.m.: “Unemployment is down to 4.1%, lowest in 17 years. 1.5 million new jobs created since I took office. Highest stock Market ever, up $5.4 trill” … at 8:49 a.m.: “Would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. Important to the United States!”

— A TWEET LIKE THAT about Aramco could be worth a lot of money to a lot of people. The Aramco tweet was sent at 2:49 a.m. in Hawaii.

****** A message from BP: Over the past 10 years, no energy company has invested more in the U.S. than BP – $90 billion in total. Take 15 seconds to see what we’re doing to help keep America moving forward. ******

DEPT. OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES — “Trump’s push for inquiries challenges Justice Dept. independence,” by Darren Samuelsohn: “With his forceful pleas via Twitter and recent media interviews to launch inquiries into everything from Hillary Clinton’s e-mails to an Obama-era uranium deal, the president is essentially setting the department up for a major breach of protocol if it actually follows through on his requests, according to former government attorneys and prosecutors.” http://politi.co/2xYSICl

THE BANNON EFFECT — “Poll: Bannon’s endorsement doesn’t help in GOP primaries,” by Eliana Johnson: “The Alabama Senate primary between Senator Luther Strange and Roy Moore raised questions about how powerful the endorsements of President Donald Trump and his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, are on the campaign trail. Though Moore, Bannon’s candidate, bested the Trump-backed Strange, a new poll suggests that among voters in the upcoming midterm elections, Bannon’s endorsement will make little difference.

“The survey, conducted by Firehouse Strategies and Optimus Consulting, found that just 13 percent of Republican voters said Bannon’s endorsement made them more likely to support a candidate. Precisely the same number said the backing of the Breitbart chief would make them less likely to support a given candidate. Firehouse was founded by former aides to Sen. Marco Rubio, and Optimus is a Republican analytics firm.” http://politi.co/2zdXbF3

ON TAX REFORM — “Dems’ plan to tank Trump’s tax bill,” by Elana Schor and Heather Caygle: “Democrats helped crush the GOP’s Obamacare repeal push by maintaining total unity and generating broad public outrage. It’s a powerful formula that fractured Republicans — but one that will be harder to replicate against the GOP tax bill. Already a handful of vulnerable Democrats in the House and Senate say they remain open to whatever tax legislation is ultimately produced. And while progressive groups and lawmakers are deploying plans to rev up the base, it’s not clear taxes will energize people outside the Beltway as the more visceral topic of health care does.” http://politi.co/2lPSrQN

— “Lobbying Frenzy Begins on Tax Bill,” by NYT’s Jim Tankersley, Tom Kaplan and Ken Vogel: “The Republican tax rewrite unveiled on Thursday has set off a scramble among lobbyists and interest groups desperate to preserve prized tax breaks that are suddenly at risk in the sweeping bill moving through the House. Yet the ability of K Street to prevent longstanding tax provisions from getting the ax is running headfirst into Republicans’ own mad dash as they attempt to quickly pass the tax rewrite and get it to President Trump’s desk by Christmas.

“The rapid pace set out by Republican leaders is by design: They want to prevent the kind of arm-twisting that has long bedeviled previous tax overhaul efforts by leaving little time for outside groups to blitz lawmakers with concerns. Several consultants and lobbyists said on Friday that individual companies were just beginning to digest how the 400-plus page bill, which drastically changes how American businesses are taxed at home and abroad, would affect their bottom lines.” http://nyti.ms/2y1K723

CATCHING YOU UP ON TRUMP ABROAD …

FOLLOW POLITICO’S man with Trump in Asia: @AndrewRestuccia

IT’S CHALLENGING to cover trips like this — the time difference is brutal — so we’ll try to find the best nuggets from stories and pool reports.

WSJ’S MIKE BENDER was pool yesterday, with PRESIDENT TRUMP in Hawaii: “At 1:14 p.m. local, POTUS & FLOTUS deplaned into 87 degree weather. The were greeted with leis by Hawaii Gov. David Ige and his wife, Dawn Ige; US Navy Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, his wife, Bruni Bradley; and Mikayla Webb, the daughter of Adm. Harris’s aid. … POTUS arrived at US Pacific Command at 1:43 p.m. local, two minutes ahead of schedule for the first stop on his 12-day trip. … ‘I tell you this is very special being in Hawaii,’ he said. …

“POTUS also appeared legitimately excited about his visit this evening to Pearl Harbor, ‘which I’ve read about, spoken about, heard about, studied, but I haven’t seen. And that is going to be very exciting for me.’ … POTUS made a somber and short visit to the USS Arizona Memorial — about 13 hours before wheels-up to Japan. POTUS & FLOTUS spent about 20 minutes at the simple yet stark shrine to the 1,177 crewmen who died during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The pair stood for about a minute in front of the white marble wall etched with the names of the fallen during a wreath laying ceremony.

“The first couple adjusted the wreath slightly before two soldiers placed it near the wall. The Trumps then threw white pikake flower petals into the water where the remains of more than 900 Arizona crewmen rest. … Most of the president’s top staff traveling with him joined the tour, including HR McMaster, Dina Powell, Rob Porter, Hope Hicks, Sarah Sanders, Matt Pottinger, Bob Lighthizer, Michael Anton, and Jared Kushner. … From his first tweet this morning at 6:51 a.m. Eastern, to the return to his Honolulu hotel at 7:33 p.m. Hawaii time, that’s nearly a 19-hour day for POTUS on the first day of his 12-day trip halfway around the world.”

— TRUMP’S WEEKEND: The president will leave Hawaii at 1:20 p.m. D.C. time (7:20 a.m. in Hawaii) for Tokyo. They land at 9:45 p.m. tonight. When Trump lands, he’ll have an event at Yokota Air Base and then he’ll have lunch with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the golfer Hideki Matsuyama at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Trump is having dinner with Abe with the first lady and Mrs. Abe at Ginza Ukai Tei in Tokyo.

— BEING THERE: @JonLemire: “Lunch today on Air Force One: a taco bowl” http://bit.ly/2ytGVQZ

IVANKA ABROAD — THE DAILY MAIL: “A cultural homage (kind of)! Ivanka Trump dons a $2,000 Italian faux kimono – and models a new wavy hairdo – as she enjoys dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe” — with 29 pix on one page http://dailym.ai/2zgWSJn

FOR OBAMA ALUMNI — “Here’s the letter Obama is sending to people who ask him about the state of the country,” by Yahoo’s Hunter Walker: https://yhoo.it/2y1AFve

THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION — JUDGE PROPOSES MAY 7 trial date for Manafort and Gates. http://politi.co/2j1GR43

–“Mueller braces for challenges to his authority,” by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein: “Robert Mueller is on an early winning streak. Stacked with some of the country’s premier prosecutors, the special counsel has beaten back a pair of preliminary attempts to block his subpoena power and limit who he can question as a potential witness. In July, Mueller’s team also managed to win approval to execute a no-knock search warrant—unusual in a white-collar case.

“But as the criminal case against former Donald Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates speeds toward a possible spring 2018 trial, Mueller’s team is bracing for an array of challenges to its authority. The battle lines are already taking shape. Kevin Downing, Manafort’s lead attorney, submitted a document Friday indicating that he anticipates filing pre-trial motions that question ‘the legal basis for and sufficiency of the charges, the suppression of evidence improperly obtained by search warrant, subpoena or otherwise.’ Downing also said he may try to prevent Mueller’s prosecutors from presenting some of their evidence during the criminal trial.” http://politi.co/2A7Qe5B

— “McConnell: No need to pass bills to protect Mueller,” by Brent D. Griffiths: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday that special counsel Robert Mueller is not in need of congressional protection from President Donald Trump. ‘I don’t hear much pressure to pass anything,’ McConnell told MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt. ‘There’s been no indication that the President or the White House are not cooperating with the special counsel.’ McConnell added, ‘I think the view up here is let him do his job.’” http://politi.co/2yuNO4E

— “Longtime Trump bodyguard to face questions about 2013 Moscow trip,” by WaPo’s Carol D. Leonnig and Greg Miller: “One of President Trump’s most trusted confidants, a security chief who served as his sounding board for nearly two decades, will face questions from congressional investigators next week about Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow, according to people familiar with their plans. … The House Intelligence Committee has called former longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller to appear for an interview Tuesday as part of its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Investigators plan to press Schiller about allegations in the 35-page dossier that Russian officials obtained compromising information about Trump’s personal behavior when he visited Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.” http://wapo.st/2lN34DM

— “Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian Officials in 2016,” by NYT’s Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman: “Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee. Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he had after conversations with government officials, legislators and business executives during his time in Moscow, according to one person familiar with the contents of the message. The email was read aloud during the closed-door testimony.” http://nyti.ms/2AkuLqY

NEW POLICY — “Protected status no longer justified for Central Americans and Haitians in U.S., State Dept. says,” by WaPo’s Nick Miroff and Karen DeYoung: “More than 300,000 Central Americans and Haitians living in the United States under a form of temporary permission no longer need to be shielded from deportation, the State Department told Homeland Security officials this week, a few days ahead of a highly anticipated DHS announcement about whether to renew that protection.

“On Tuesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke to inform her that conditions in Central America and Haiti that had been used to justify the protection no longer necessitate a reprieve for the migrants, some of whom have been allowed to live and work in the United States for 20 years under a program known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).” http://wapo.st/2A7oopO

PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump, donned in lei, greets servicemen after arriving aboard Air Force On at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Nov. 3. | Jamm Aquino/The Star-Advertiser via AP

K STREET FILES — “Trump Offered Corey Lewandowski a New Job. Corey Turned It Down Because It Was ‘Chump Change,’” by the Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng: “Trump had asked if he wanted a job that would place him in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, across the way from the West Wing, sources in and outside the administration say. According to two people who spoke with Lewandowski, he ‘strongly’ considered taking the gig, in hopes of getting to serve Trump in an official capacity once more. However, he came to the conclusion that the job wasn’t senior enough, telling friends that it was ‘beneath him.’ … [T]hose close to Lewandowski say he told friends in October that he had been offered a senior post in the Office of Public Liaison.” http://thebea.st/2h29ppH

TRUMP INC. — “Trump wins permission for 70 foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago,” by Palm Beach Post’s Jeff Ostrowski: “Like other Palm Beach County employers who staff their clubs with foreign workers, President Donald Trump is boosting the number of employees he’s bringing from overseas this winter. Trump won permission to hire 70 maids, cooks and servers at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the 2017-18 tourist season, according to newly released data from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2016-17, Trump hired 64 foreign workers at the Palm Beach property.” http://pbpo.st/2j17Igy

MEDIAWATCH — “Fresh questions about Trump administration’s review of AT&T-Time Warner deal,” by CNN’s Brian Stelter: “Trump is not shy about his enemies list. It includes Hillary Clinton and several major news outlets, including CNN. That’s why there are whispers in political and media circles that the president may be trying to interfere with AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, especially now that the DOJ is reportedly considering a lawsuit to block the deal. … According to my sources, executives at AT&T and Time Warner have been under the impression that DOJ approval was right around the corner. The companies have been negotiating what’s known as a ‘consent decree.” http://cnnmon.ie/2j2BDVt

–“Sean Hannity Gets Inducted Into the National Radio Hall of Fame” — AdWeek: http://bit.ly/2zd4F92

WEINSTEIN UPDATE — “NYPD is working to arrest Harvey Weinstein on rape allegations,” by N.Y. Post’s Tina Moore and Ruth Brown: “The NYPD is prepared to arrest Harvey Weinstein for raping ‘Boardwalk Empire’ star Paz de la Huerta — and the next step is for the Manhattan district attorney to get an arrest warrant, a top department official said Friday. ‘She put forth a credible and detailed narrative to us. We then sought to garner corroboration — this happened seven years ago — and we found corroboration,’ Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters. … When asked what made de la Huerta’s case so credible, he explained it was her ‘ability to articulate each and every movement of the crime — where she was, where they met, where this happened and what he did.’” http://pge.sx/2h3B7T7

CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 14 keepers http://politi.co/2zctrsc

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:

–“#Reviewing Destined for War: An Interview with Graham Allison” – Q&A by Brett Wesley in the Strategy Bridge: “‘The Chinese believe the contest in the South China Sea is basically over, and that they won. All the governments in the region now ask first what will China do. China’s naval budget will soon exceed our own, especially with regards to regional competition, and it’s unlikely we can buy our way out of this problem.’” http://bit.ly/2it4vCs … Graham Allison’s book — $19.04 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2tNVqbC

–“The Istanbul Derby,” by Spencer Hall in SB Nation: “Soccer, fire and a game at the world’s crossroads.” http://bit.ly/2zcVsA4

–“Putin’s Revenge” – PBS Frontline: “Frontline tells the inside story of how Vladimir Putin came to see the United States as an enemy — and why he decided to target an American election.” http://to.pbs.org/2zhySpy

–“How to Tell If You’re a Supertaster,” by Rob DeSalle in Nautilus magazine: “For one thing, you won’t like IPAs.” http://bit.ly/2zhyiIm

–“Mapping the Reformation in America,” by Lyman Stone in In A State Of Migration on Medium: “The legacy of Luther in America. By the time the settlement of the United States was well underway, the longevity of Protestantism was essentially assured. Many of the early American settlers were religious dissidents calling for reformation. Protestant churches are strongest now in the midwest and great plains, Pennsylvania, upland south, and central Texas. They correlate loosely with Northern European ancestry, pro-Trump voting, family stability, economic mobility, farming and heavy industry.” http://bit.ly/2h1pkob

–“Eugenics 2.0: We’re at the Dawn of Choosing Embryos by Health, Height, and More,” by Antonio Regalado in Technology Review: “Will you be among the first to pick your kids’ IQ? As machine learning unlocks predictions from DNA databases, scientists say parents could have choices never before possible.” http://bit.ly/2zuTOu5

–“Typos on the Skin of Men: The Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq,” by Jay Herndon in the Strategy Bridge – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “Perceptive account of the “quiet failures” of economic reform in Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority. American administrators were told to create a ‘vibrant, free market’ as a check on any future dictatorship. But their confidence far outstripped their expertise, and their mistakes laid the foundations for much of the chaos that followed. Said one: ‘I don’t give a s–t about international law. I made a commitment to the president that I’d privatize Iraq’s businesses.’” http://bit.ly/2xYQRgM

–“A Very Old Man for a Wolf,” by Emma Marris in Outside Magazine: “He was the alpha male of the first pack to live in Oregon since 1947. For years, a state biologist tracked him, collared him, counted his pups, weighed him, photographed him, and protected him. But then the animal known as OR4 broke one too many rules.” http://bit.ly/2zd2ylH

–“The fax of life,” by Vox’s Sarah Kliff: “In the medical sector, the fax is as dominant as ever. It is the cockroach of American medicine: hated by doctors and medical professionals but able to survive — even thrive — in a hostile environment. By one private firm’s estimate, the fax accounts for about 75 percent of all medical communication. It frustrates doctors, nurses, researchers, and entire hospitals, but a solution is evasive.” http://bit.ly/2iZaToQ

–“Small-Town Noir,” by Adam Thirlwell, reviewing “Twin Peaks: The Return” in the N.Y. Review of Books: David Lynch’s “cinema is disreputably baroque, brimming with meaning that it disavows. He’s of the same generation as Malick and Scorsese, but where they now seem historical, Lynch still has the fragility of the contemporary. The greatness of his art is linked to the kitsch of his materials, all the B-movie unheimlich maneuvers: doppelgängers, prosthetics, recurring numbers, dream sequences, animated corpses.” http://bit.ly/2lRAyBd

–“Trapped in the clichés of Spain,” by Andrea Aguilar in El Pais: “The crisis in Catalonia has demonstrated that the Iberian stereotypes persist in foreign media outlets.” http://bit.ly/2zbLCfi

–“The Suicide Catcher,” by Michael Paterniti in the Aug. 2010 issue of GQ: “In the rapidly modernizing, constantly churning city of Nanjing, China, there is a legendary bridge, four miles long, where day after day, week after week, the desperate and melancholy and tormented come to end their lives. Most end up in the Yangtze River, 130 feet below. But some do not meet their maker. They meet someone else. They are pulled back from the brink—sometimes violently—by an odd and unlikely angel.” http://bit.ly/2A4eHZg (h/t Longform.org)

–“Is the artist behind ‘Pay Trump bribes here’ a protest messenger for our times?” by WaPo’s David Montgomery: http://wapo.st/2A4a1Th

–“The Disillusionment of Samuel Moyn,” by Jon Baskin in the Chronicle of Higher Ed: “The Yale historian has become a prominent critic of liberalism. But what’s he for?” http://bit.ly/2hDWw6b

–“Lost and Found,” by Robert Sanchez in 5280: “Several long-serving members of NecroSearch, the world’s preeminent group for locating and retrieving missing bodies, are nearing retirement age. What will happen to the Colorado-based volunteer organization once they’re gone?” http://bit.ly/2itoaCc

SPOTTED: Denis McDonough yesterday at BWI … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) on the 3:00 pm Acela heading north. … Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) yesterday in first class on the Acela to New York …

… Dick Wiley, former FCC chairman and current FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly at an inside table; and Dontai Smalls, UPS lobbyist, and Paul Brathwaite at an outside table dining for lunch Friday afternoon at Fig & Olive … former Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), wife Sonya and their kids celebrating one of their son’s birthdays at the Wizards game with host Brandon Webb, chief of staff for Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.)

WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE – JUDD DEERE has been hired as the White House’s director of state and local communications. He starts on Nov. 27. He most recently was communications director for Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.

OUT AND ABOUT — DOUGLAS SMITH of Kent Strategies celebrated his 50th birthday at Pearl Street Warehouse last night. SPOTTED: Liz Sears Smith, David Culver, Mary Morgan Limperis, Melissa Maxfield, Bruce Gates and Joyce Gates, Bruce Andrews, David and Amanda Bowker, Paul and Liz Dougherty, Liz and Robert Moore, Patrick Mellody, Erick Mullen, Kelly Craighead, Paul and Cecilie Horvath, David and Viktoria Metzner, Kathleen Matthews, Susan Blumenthal, Mike Zamore, Abigail Smith, Paul Tencher, Vince Frillici and Chris Lisi.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Minh-Thu Pham, executive director for policy at the United Nations Foundation in the NY office (hat tip: Courtney Hulse, who was on time) … Edelman’s Lauren Greco

BIRTHDAYS: Jeremy Bernard (h/t Tammy Haddad) … Kathy Griffin … Kit Seelye … Laura Bush is 71 … BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith … U.S. Chamber’s Blair Latoff Holmes … Craig Stevens … Hal Malchow … Rima Sirota of the Georgetown University Law Center, celebrating with Tom (h/t Jon Haber) … Michael Fontneau … Alice Tong … Kenneth R. Weinstein, president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, is 56 … Eric Wagner of Bloomberg Government … Toby Lam … AP’s Alex Sanz … WTOP’s Hillary Howard … WaPo’s Mike DeBonis … Carlos Gutierrez, chair at Albright Stonebridge and former Secretary of Commerce under Bush 43 and CEO of Kellogg (h/t Ben Chang) … Will Shaw … Michael Clauser … Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) is 7-0 … Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) is 46 … Emma Kenyon of Sen. McCaskill’s office (h/t Sophie White) … Laylee Ghiasi … Julie Siegel, currently banking counsel for Sen. Warren (D-Mass.) and an Obama WH, CFPB, and Harvard Law alum … Jean Roseme … Darla Bunting … Jessica Reis, VP at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, who races her husband every morning to see who can finish Playbook first (hubby tip: Anthony DeAngelo) … Katie Hughes of CRC (h/t Garrett Ventry) … Politico’s Olivia Rogin …

… Amanda Thayer, press secretary for NARAL Pro-Choice America … Max Gleischman, celebrating with surprise birthday plans that will involve Dante in the West Village, his favorite place for a cocktail (h/t wife Rachel Racusen) … Tim Saler of Grassroots Targeting (http://bit.ly/2hBgiyT) (h/t Matt Moon) … Catherine De Castelbajac … Ezra Mechaber, principal at Precision Strategies … LinkedIn’s Florencia Iriondo … Lucy Tutwiler Hodas … Brian J. Siebel … L’Auberge Chez Francois’ Jacques Haeringer (h/t Robb Watters) … Ashley Estes Kavanaugh … Kevin McVicker … Trish Turner … Elena Chiriboga … Markus Palmgren … Joe Vidunas … Morgan Mohr … Kari Kant … Jeremy Chwat is 43 … Ira Fishman, COO/managing director of the NFL Players Association … Danny O’Driscoll … Kristin Hardy-Artikaslan … Jared Kleinstein … Sloan Rappoport … Julie Tippens … Lynde Uihlein … Susan Knapp … Casey Sinnwell … Hal Malchow (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

THE SHOWS by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

–Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”: Vice President Mike Pence … House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) … Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.). Panel: Al D’Amato and Jon Hilsenrath

–“Fox News Sunday”: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Panel: Karl Rove, Rachael Bade, Jason Riley and Juan Williams … “Power Player of the Week”: Mark Cuban

–ABC’s “This Week”: Donna Brazile … Preet Bharara and Ken Starr … Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). Panel: Charles Blow, Sara Fagen, Marc Lotter and Julie Pace

–CNN’s “State of the Union”: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) … Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Panel: Jen Psaki, Michael Caputo, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)

–NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Panel: Tom Brokaw, Kasie Hunt, Eugene Robinson and Peggy Noonan

–CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Panel: Jamelle Bouie, Susan Page, Ramesh Ponnuru and Jerry Seib … Michael Lewis and Pete Souza

–Fox News’ “MediaBuzz”: Ed Henry … Mollie Hemingway … Marie Harf … Bill Bennett … Marisa Guthrie

–CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King: Michael Shear, Nia-Malika Henderson, Mary Katharine Ham and Phil Mattingly

–CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: Preet Bharara and Michael Hayden … foreign policy panel: Kurt Campbell, Elise Hu and Kishore Mahbubani

–CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: Michael Isikoff, David Folkenflik, Eliana Johnson and Errol Louis … Ronan Farrow and Indira Lakshmanan

–Univision’s “Al Punto”: Univision News correspondents Blanca Rosa Vilchez and Pablo Monsalvo … Otto Reich and Bill Richardson… San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz … Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló … Tom Perez … pop duo Jesse y Joy

–C-SPAN’s “The Communicators”: Axios’ David McCabe and Politico’s Ashley Gold … “Newsmakers”: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), questioned by CQ Roll Call’s Niels Lesniewski and Foreign Policy’s Robbie Gramer … “Q&A”: Biographer Ron Chernow

–Washington Times’ “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at http://bit.ly/2omgw1D): Garrett Graff.

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/2lQswbh … Playbook Power Briefing http://politi.co/2xuOiqh … New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 … New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF … Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb … California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl … London Playbook http://politi.co/2xfDPuK … Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw … All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

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[buddyrabrahams]

15 biggest disappointments of NFL Week 2

Week 2 of the NFL season was filled with excellent performance, but there were also a number of players and units that simply did not live up to expectations. Be it a star who didn’t produce or a group with a solid matchup who offered pretty much nothing, there were plenty of disappointments in this slate of NFL action.

Here’s a list of 15 major disappointments to come out of Week 2 of the NFL Season.

Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Cowboys

Sunday was going to be the day that Elliott, the reigning NFL rushing champion, was going to rise up and show us just how good he was against one of the NFL’s top defenses. The opposite happened. Part of it was the gameplan, but Elliott was dominated by Denver, getting an astonishingly inept eight yards on nine total carries. He had more yards receiving — 14 on four catches — than he did on the ground. One could argue that perhaps he was mentally impacted by the drama surrounding his suspension, but he rushed for 100 yards last week, so it doesn’t hold water. This was easily the worst game of Elliott’s professional career, and while it’s too soon to raise any red flags, it will be interesting to see how he bounces back from this.

The Cincinnati Bengals offense

Andy Dalton offered next to nothing, again failing to throw for a single touchdown. No running back had more than Joe Mixon’s 36 yards on nine carries. Normally mild-mannered A.J. Green was criticizing the team’s offensive gameplan. The Cincinnati offense was so bad that offensive coordinator Ken Zampese didn’t even make it to the weekend. It’s not exactly clear where they go from here, but it’s quite obvious that things aren’t working — they were stymied by a Houston team that had been eviscerated by Blake Bortles the week before.

Cleveland Browns quarterbacks

The Browns’ quarterbacks made like Andy Dalton against the Baltimore Ravens’ defense. DeShone Kizer and Kevin Hogan combined for five turnovers in the game. Kizer threw three interceptions and lost a fumble. Hogan also threw a pick during his limited action. Collectively, Cleveland’s QBs were 20 of 42 for 293 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions. The completion percentage is somewhat deceptive though, as the Browns dropped several passes and didn’t really help their QBs.

Sam Bradford, QB, Vikings

Bradford remains a disappointment, mostly because of his inability to stay healthy. Coming off one of his best games ever as a pro, one in which he shredded the Saints’ defense, Bradford injured his left knee — the same one he had two ACL surgeries on in the past. The injury caused him to miss Sunday’s game against the Steelers, leaving Minnesota to start Case Keenum. Keenum predictably did very little in a 26-9 loss. Mike Zimmer says Bradford is “fine” but he’s unsure when the QB will be ready to return. The injury is just another reminder that you can’t get your hopes up about Bradford, who has played in 37 of a possible 66 games since 2013.

Cam Newton, QB, Panthers

One only needs to look back to the 2015 season to know what Cam Newton is capable of. When at his best, he can make all kinds of plays and carry a team. He has not shown that form so far this season. Newton was 20 of 32 for 228 yards and rushed for 27 yards in a 9-3 win over the Bills. He was sacked six times and hurt his ankle in the game, which may have impacted him late as he missed a very easy touchdown pass. This was the second week in a row in which Newton was not at his best. Luckily the defense has been able to carry Carolina. But with Greg Olsen out with a broken foot, you have to wonder whether things will improve for the Panthers’ offense.

Dak Prescott, QB, Cowboys

The Cowboys asked a lot of Prescott, having him throw 50 times against one of the league’s elite passing defenses in Denver. Part of that was due to the fact that the Cowboys were playing from behind for much of the contest, but Prescott simply couldn’t take the heat. Though he completed 30 of his 50 attempts, he only racked up 238 yards, a rather modest 4.8 yards per completion. He was sacked twice and threw two interceptions, including a 103-yard pick six to Aqib Talib late in the fourth quarter. It was a day to forget for Prescott and the Cowboys.

LeSean McCoy, RB, Bills

Carolina’s defense has the early look of what may be one of the top units in the league. A week after holding San Francisco to three points, they similarly stymied the Bills, holding Buffalo to three as well. Shady McCoy failed to break loose against the Panthers, being held to just nine yards on 12 carries. He did lead Buffalo with six catches for 34 yards. Still, the Bills need much more from McCoy to win games. It’s also important to note that the Bills said a groin injury McCoy dealt with during the week was not a factor in his Week 2 performance.

New Orleans Saints’ defense

No matter what the Saints do, it seems like their defense still remains awful. They were last in the NFL in points allowed two seasons ago, 31st in the league last season, and they’re on their way to taking up the basement yet again. After Sam Bradford dissected the Saints’ defense on Monday night, it was Tom Brady’s turn six days later. He had his way with New Orleans, going 30 of 39 for 447 yards and three touchdowns. All told the Saints allowed 36 points and 555 total yards. They’re well on their way to taking up the last place in the NFL’s defensive rankings yet again.

Haason Reddick, LB, Cardinals

Outside of Chandler Jones, who had two sacks and three hurries, not many Cardinals stood out as they sleepwalked to an overtime win over the Colts. Certainly the play of Haason Reddick was nothing to write home about. The rookie first-round pick from Temple was credited with 7 tackles in the game. He was a weak spot for Arizona’s defense in coverage. According to Pro Football Focus, he allowed four receptions for 51 yards, including three third downs. Opposing QB Jacoby Brissett had a 118.8 passer rating when throwing into Reddick’s coverage.

Russell Wilson, QB, Seahawks

One had to expect a lot more out of Wilson against the San Francisco 49ers, but ultimately, he couldn’t even push the Seahawks in front until rather late in the fourth quarter. He had the support of the running game — Chris Carson picked up 93 yards on 20 carries — and his defense more than pulled their weight, but Wilson really couldn’t drive Seattle downfield much. His fourth quarter touchdown pass was his only one of the day, and while he avoided turnovers, he was sacked three times and managed just 198 yards passing. The Niner defense just isn’t good enough to justify numbers like that.

Jimmy Graham, TE, Seahawks

What was that? Graham was only targeted twice by Russell Wilson, and the only catch he made was for one yard. He was also knocked out of the game briefly with a knee injury, which may or may not have impacted his performance. The guess here is that it wasn’t a major factor when you consider that he only caught three passes for eight yards last week, and all indications are he’s on the fringes of the Seattle offense right now. Graham isn’t going to be what he was with New Orleans, but he still reeled in 65 catches and six touchdowns last season. We’re a far cry from that now, and things didn’t look to get any better.

Los Angeles Rams wide receivers

Gerald Everett had a 69-yard reception, but otherwise, the Los Angeles Rams had to come away disappointed with the performances of their receivers, particularly the bigger names. Sammy Watkins only pulled in two catches for 30 yards, with 28 of them coming on one reception. Tavon Austin was a non-factor for a second consecutive game, with just one five-yard reception. Excluding Everett, nobody had more than 50 yards, and the only one who came close was Todd Gurley with 48 — who is, of course, a running back. The hope was probably that Watkins would be a big play target for Jared Goff, but that isn’t happening yet, and nobody else is stepping up either.

Terrelle Pryor, WR, Redskins

This is not the Pryor that Washington would have thought they were getting. After a disappointing Week 1, Pryor was even worse here, getting just four targets. He caught two of them for 31 yards, but Trumaine Johnson had him pretty much locked down for the entire day. The 66 yards he got last week look downright good right now. Washington won, but they will be looking for a lot more big plays from their free agent wide receiver in the weeks to come.

Los Angeles Chargers running backs

For the second consecutive week, Chargers backs offered nothing to take pressure off Philip Rivers. Melvin Gordon wasn’t very good last week, but he took a huge step back against Miami, accumulating just 13 yards on nine carries — 11 of them on one run. The story was the same with Branden Oliver, who got 26 of his 31 yards on one carry as well. In total, the Chargers were able to come up with just 44 rushing yards, leaving Rivers to move the offense pretty much on his own. He couldn’t do quite enough, and with that in mind, it’s no wonder Los Angeles could only manage 17 points in their loss.

Green Bay’s defense

Credit where it’s due — the Atlanta offense was and still remains an extremely dangerous unit. It’s no coincidence, though, that Green Bay’s defense — particularly the rush defense — folded quickly when Mike Daniels was knocked out with an injury. What followed was a clinic from Atlanta’s deadly Devonta Freeman/Tevin Coleman combination, as the two combined to rack up 126 yards on 25 carries. That opened things up for Matt Ryan, who threw for 252 yards and a touchdown. Green Bay’s defense offered little resistance, and hiding behind the Daniels excuse just isn’t good enough. They had problems last year, and they look like they might be prone to similar issues this season.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2hcHenw

[junker-town]

2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series playoff preview

The storylines to follow, the drivers who will contend, and everything else you need to know as NASCAR begins its Cup Series playoffs.

Over the next 10 weeks, 16 drivers will vie for the Monster Energy Cup Series championship. NASCAR’s annual postseason knockout format will again see four drivers eliminated every three races, while a win automatically advances a participant to the next bracket, culminating in a one race best-finish-wins-the-championship finale Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

3 Pressing questions

Will Chevrolet and Ford be able to keep pace with Toyota?

Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing dominated the regular season by winning four races and leading the series in stage wins, points, top-10 finishes, and laps led. His quasi-teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, combined to win four of the past eight races.

This trio gives Toyota three legitimate championship contenders, and the advantage the manufacturer holds isn’t lost on the competition. Chevrolet- or Ford-supported drivers have struggled to keep pace on a week-to-week basis, with only Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson showing the capability of consistently outperforming Toyota’s triumvirate.

“At this moment, there’s really no reason for Toyota not to have all four spots going to Homestead,” said Brad Keselowski, driver of the Team Penske No. 2 Ford.

Toyota’s perceived advantage was apparent Friday in practice and qualifying for Sunday’s playoff-opener at Chicagoland Speedway -- Busch, Hamlin and Truex swept the top-three positions -- which compelled Keselowski to voice his displeasure that NASCAR hadn’t taken action to level the playing field.

“At the start of the year, we were at the top of the cycle,” Keselowski said. “And at this moment, we are not where we need to be. With respect to that, we were at the top and it seemed like there were a lot of rules changes us to slow us down and now you have cars that are so much faster than the field and the complete inaction by [NASCAR].”

Keselowski’s comments didn’t sit well with Busch, Hamlin and Truex’s crew chief, Cole Pearn, all of who offered rebukes. Busch and Hamlin were especially pointed in their responses, dismissing both Keselowski and the notion it had some unfair superiority over the competition.

“He’s an idiot anyways, we all know that,” Busch said. “You don’t hear anyone else complaining like he is -- it’s just one guy. We weren’t complaining when they were fast and they won the championship knowing what they were doing, we had to go to work and figure it out. It just seems like those things aren’t happening.”

The superiority is similar to a year ago when the manufacturer rolled into the playoffs on a tsunami of success with Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards winning 50 percent of the regular season races, leading some to believe Toyota might grab all four spots in the championship race.

But while Busch and Edwards did advance to the title round, the overwhelming dominance rescinded. And ultimately, it was Jimmie Johnson driving his No. 48 Chevrolet to the championship, with Ford’s Joey Logano second.

“It's tough to go into the playoffs the favorites,” Hamlin said. “We've been on both sides of it. When the expectations are high, you got a big lead like you see out there on that board, you tend to play defensive a little bit. I think the challenge is having the lead and keeping it.”

Can Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports again flip the switch?

Just as Toyota has assumed a similar role to the one played in the 2016 postseason, Hendrick Motorsports is doing the same as it again comes into the playoffs slumping and not at all resembling the powerhouse it’s supposed to be. Its four drivers have a combined four top-10 finishes and 24 laps led over the past six races. That considerable lack of speed gives the impression Johnson, Chase Elliott and Kasey Kahne won’t be serious factors. (Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to qualify for the postseason.)

Except, of course, this was the widespread belief last year, then all Johnson did was win a playoff-best three races en route to win a seventh Cup championship, tying the all-time mark shared by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

So is the Hendrick summer swoon because the team fell behind, or a team prioritizing on being at its best during the 10 most important races of the year? The answer might be a bit of both.

“We have worked really hard to not let [another slump] happen in 2017, but dammit it did again,” Johnson said. “So, the one thing that is after the summer is the fall, and we always get hot in the fall. We are certainly hoping for more of the same.”

What is not in question is whether one should dismiss Johnson’s chances to win a record-breaking eighth title. As Johnson and mastermind crew chief Chad Knaus have continually demonstrated, they know how to rise to the occasion in the playoffs even when the No. 48 Hendrick team isn’t operating at its peak.

It cannot be stressed enough how well the 10-race playoffs set up for Johnson, whose four winningest tracks host races. He used that formula last year, winning a second round race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a third round race at Martinsville Speedway and the championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Never count 'em out, nope,” Busch said. “I've had friends over the years that have worked for Hendrick and have worked with the 48 team, they always say, ‘Man, when the first Chase race comes, Jimmie's got a switch that he flips on, and it's on.’ So we'll see if he can do it again. He has before, right? So don't count him out.”

How will the new points system factor?

The format on how NASCAR goes about crowning its champion may be unchanged. However, the points system and how points are distributed within the knockout format is radically different and will have a significant impact.

The advent of stage-racing provided drivers opportunities to collect points that are added to their total in each round. In essence, regular season success for the first time is now awarded in the playoffs, which can factor heavily in who transfers to the next round and who misses out.

This gives Truex, who won four races and a series-best 18 stage wins along with the regular season points title, a sizeable advantage. The Furniture Row driver will start the playoffs 20 points up on second-place Larson, and Truex’s bonus point accumulation is such that barring a complete collapse he’s a near-lock to make it to the third round.

“Obviously, Truex is probably 80 percent chance of making Homestead,” Hamlin said. “I think only two detrimental races in one round could possibly knock him out, but he's liable to win the third one.”

Larson and Busch, the third seed, also are well positioned to go on deep playoff runs because of how they performed during the regular season. At least this is the conventional wisdom. Surely there will be aspects of the new system that will come to the forefront that weren’t realized before, and a driver buried in the standings can negate any deficit by winning and automatically advancing.

“I think it's going to be six or seven guys that are going to be very close to getting into that final four,” Hamlin said. “Which one? It's just which one has the right break, which one gets the caution at the right time that they need it to either take him in or take him out.”

Championship 4 favorites

Martin Truex Jr.

If he can execute anywhere close to what he did during the regular season, Truex should have little issue making it to South Florida with a shot at a first-ever championship.

Kyle Busch

After an uneven start to the season, Busch was excellent in the second with two wins and eight other finishes inside the top 10 over the past 13 races. Without a track in the playoffs where he’s not capable of winning, a second championship in three years is realistic.

Kyle Larson

Lacks consistency to outrun the Toyotas every week, and the fourth-year driver is still susceptible to the occasional mistake. Nonetheless, he’s fast and quite proficient on intermediate tracks, which make up half the playoff schedule including the finale at Homestead.

Jimmie Johnson

Yeah, he’s had a down year by his lofty standards with career-lows in top fives, top 10s, average finish and laps led. Still, never bet against the defending and seven-time champ. He’s more than earned the benefit of the doubt.

Playoff sleeper

Kurt Busch began the season with a bang, winning the Daytona 500 and having a victory lane celebration with Rob Gronkowski. Then, Busch largely underwhelmed with just a lone top-five in the subsequent 22 races. But the 2004 Cup champion closed out the regular finish with a flourish, posting three consecutive finishes of fifth or better. If he can continue that surge, a second title becomes a possibility.

Race to watch (besides the championship finale)

Talladega Superspeedway may no longer be the Round 2 elimination race, which diminishes drama to some degree. Still, the restrictor-plate track is the one venue in the postseason that gives every title-eligible participant a pit in their stomach due to its propensity for chaos, where drivers are often at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control.

How the Chase Works

Drivers: 16

Thirteen drivers qualified for the Chase by winning a race during the regular season:

Martin Truex Jr Kyle Larson Kyle Busch Brad Keselowski Jimmie Johnson Kevin Harvick Denny Hamlin Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ryan Blaney Ryan Newman Kurt Busch Kasey Kahne Austin Dillon

The remaining three spots were determined off points:

Chase Elliott Matt Kenseth Jamie McMurray

Rounds: 4

The first three rounds are each comprised of three races. The final championship round is just a single race.

Elimination races: 3

Four drivers are eliminated from contention each round, based on having the four lowest points totals. Win a race to advance to the next round automatically.

Champions: 1

Whichever of the four drivers still in the Chase finishes highest at Homestead-Miami Speedway wins the championship.

Chase playoff schedule

Round 1 (16 drivers)

Sept. 17: Chicagoland Speedway, 3 p.m., NBCSN

Sept. 24: New Hampshire Speedway, 2 p.m., NBCSN

Oct. 1: Dover International Speedway, 2 p.m. NBCSN

Round 2 (12 drivers)

Oct. 18: Charlotte Motor Speedway, 2 p.m. NBC

Oct. 15: Talladega Superspeedway, 2 p.m. NBC

Oct. 22: Kansas Motor Speedway, 3 p.m. NBCSN

Round 3 (8 drivers)

Oct. 29: Martinsville Speedway, 3 p.m., NBCSN

Nov. 5: Texas Motor Speedway, 2 p.m., NBC

Nov. 12: Phoenix International Raceway, 2:30 p.m. NBC

Championship Race (4 drivers)

Nov. 19: Homestead-Miami Speedway, 2:30 p.m. NBC

[milkshake0304-blog]

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That's essential, especially since all Titan X designs will rock advertence coolers only—there will be no aftermarket cooler options from board vendors. Nvidia maintain the Titan X overclocks like a champ, hitting up to 1.4GHz in the company’s spiritual cupellation. I was weak to OC the Titan X due to opportunity constraints, but assumed the superb overclocking capabilities of every other Maxwell-supported GPU, I willingly expect the proclaim. It also fully uphold Nvidia’s impressive Multi-Frame-Sampled Anti-aliasing (MFAA) technology, which smooths out jagged margin at a level similar to traditionary MSAA, but with much less of production hit. This phenomenal technology toil with any DirectX 10 or DX11 title that protect MSAA and basically provides a frank—and often substantial—frame proportion increment. That’s a gigantic deal at any resolution, but it can disgraceful the variation between a playable game and stuttering clean at 4K perseverance. Depending on the marathon and its adjust scold, mesh noise is more or less auricular; our distinction is also using a high framerate scenario to reveal any potential coil-rumor problems. by techPowerUp! I've also included the maximum OC performance result with the MSI GTX 980 Gaming, which is the game with the zenith overclocked real-life performance we tested. by techPowerUp! I also regard some slight coil rumor coming when it runs high FPS, but it's not noticeable enough to be disturbance. multicoring level12 Excellent 2 months ago. Comparable to 1070s when overclocked. Lots of vram, which is nice. Good for holding onto until Volta, especially when i got two of them. Technology for intelligent monitoring of clock speed, ensuring that the GPU go at its point and the game is at its highest contrive rate likely. It attempt untried levels of customization, hold GPU temperature target, overclocking, and unlocked voltage. GPU Tweak with XSplit Gamecaster GPU Tweak: Real-age perceptive graphics tuning Adjust beetle haste, voltages and ventilate celerity to attune your graphics card(s) fully how you want to. Select between GPU Tweak’s Standard or Advanced modes depending on your open of experience. Choose Standard Mode to access Intuitive options for easy pull. This is strong for those erudition how to air graphics game. Alternatively endeavor out the Advanced Mode for vitiate and far-reaching tuning options that endow complete control for experienced overclockers. XSplit Gamecaster Now, you can also pierce XSplit Gamecaster to bring up the in-game covert and start streaming or recording your gameplay with the click of a button. You can also try the in-quarry annotations and video editor characteristic to enhance your Pancratium rush undergo. Learn more about XSplit Gamecaster. Forget the GTX 1080: there's a new viscous of graphics game hotness on the distance from Nvidia, and its name is, er, the GTX Titan X. Yes, Nvidia has taken its most lavish graphics basket and assumed it a Pascal-structure makeover. $1200—UK price TBC, but probably £1,100—buys you 11 teraflops of FP32 performance, which is a significant 24 percent jump over the 8.9 teraflops of the GTX 1080, and honest over 60 percent higher than the 6.6 teraflops of the original Titan X. Interestingly, while the new GTX Titan X features the same number of CUDA random access memory as Nvidia's Tesla P100 GPU—as used in thorough literature and knowledge applications—it is using a different silicon chip. With previous Titans, Nvidia has merely taken its biggest chip and given it a prosumer makeover, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Those inlet for a return of the stellar FP64 performance of the original Titan may be disappointed here, although Nvidia is enterprising the card's 44 TOPs of INT8, a measurement for neural cobweb inference production. The reveal of the Titan X imitate the pierce of the GTX 1080, the GTX 1070, and the GTX 1060, all of which were released over the past two months. That's a fierce liberate catalogue by anyone's standards. Quite why Nvidia is so keen to get the Titan X out of the door, particularly when it has zero competition at the top end of the market, is something of a form. Still, with 11 teraflops, the Titan X might finally be the card that fetters us sweet 60FPS 4K gaming. The GM200 GPU aboard the Titan X is based on the same Maxwell architecture that we've seen in cloudiness-extermination GeForce cards, and in many ways, it follows the template adjust by Nvidia in the beyond. The major league conversion of the new GPU ecclesiology often arrival a little later, but when it does, good things occur on much larger scale. Nvidia has equipped the Titan X with its familiar dual-slot aluminum cooler, but this turning has been coated with a spiffy matte-dusky finish. The result is a look resembling to a blacked-out muscle car, and I think it's absolutely corrupt-punani. Don't repeat the nerds who read my website that I got so excited about color colours, though, please. Finally, for launch availability this will be a rigid launch with a unimportant twist. Rather than starting with narrate and etail partners such as Newegg, NVIDIA is going to calcitrate things off by selling cage directly, while associate will start to sell cards in a few weeks. For a card alike GTX Titan X, NVIDIA selling cards forthwith is not a huge effort; with all cards being same reference cards, colleague largely serve as distributors and technical support for buyers. Reference GTXTITANX. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/GTXTITANX12GD5/. GeForce GTX TITAN X. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-TITAN-X. NVIDIA TITAN X Graphics Card for VR Gaming | NVIDIA GeForce. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/titan-x-pascal/. Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X review: Hail to the new king of graphics. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2897196/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-x-review-hail-to-the-new-king-of-graphics-cards.html. Nvidia unveils new GTX Titan X: 11 teraflops, 12GB GDDR5X, just .... (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/gtx-titan-x-pascal-specs-price-release-date/. Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan X graphics card reviewed. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from http://techreport.com/review/27969/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-x-graphics-card-reviewed. The Ultimate GPU, TITAN X. Available Now | GeForce. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from https://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-x. UserBenchmark: Nvidia GTX Titan X. (2017). Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Nvidia-GTX-Titan-X/Rating/3282. Ryan Smith. (2017). The NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X Review. Retrieved on July 7, 2017, from http://www.anandtech.com/show/9059/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-x-review.

[junker-town]

2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series playoff preview

The storylines to follow, the drivers who will contend, and everything else you need to know as NASCAR begins its Cup Series playoffs.

Over the next 10 weeks, 16 drivers will vie for the Monster Energy Cup Series championship. NASCAR’s annual postseason knockout format will again see four drivers eliminated every three races, while a win automatically advances a participant to the next bracket, culminating in a one race best-finish-wins-the-championship finale Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

3 Pressing questions

Will Chevrolet and Ford be able to keep pace with Toyota?

Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing dominated the regular season by winning four races and leading the series in stage wins, points, top-10 finishes, and laps led. His quasi-teammates from Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, combined to win four of the past eight races.

This trio gives Toyota three legitimate championship contenders, and the advantage the manufacturer holds isn’t lost on the competition. Chevrolet- or Ford-supported drivers have struggled to keep pace on a week-to-week basis, with only Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson showing the capability of consistently outperforming Toyota’s triumvirate.

“At this moment, there’s really no reason for Toyota not to have all four spots going to Homestead,” said Brad Keselowski, driver of the Team Penske No. 2 Ford.

The superiority is similar to a year ago when the manufacturer rolled into the playoffs on a tsunami of success with Truex, Busch, Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards winning 50 percent of the regular season races, leading some to believe Toyota might grab all four spots in the championship race.

But while Busch and Edwards did advance to the title round, the overwhelming dominance rescinded. And ultimately, it was Jimmie Johnson driving his No. 48 Chevrolet to the championship, with Ford’s Joey Logano second.

“It's tough to go into the playoffs the favorites,” Hamlin said. “We've been on both sides of it. When the expectations are high, you got a big lead like you see out there on that board, you tend to play defensive a little bit. I think the challenge is having the lead and keeping it.”

Can Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports again flip the switch?

Just as Toyota has assumed a similar role to the one played in the 2016 postseason, Hendrick Motorsports is doing the same as it again comes into the playoffs slumping and not at all resembling the powerhouse it’s supposed to be. Its four drivers have a combined four top-10 finishes and 24 laps led over the past six races. That considerable lack of speed gives the impression Johnson, Chase Elliott and Kasey Kahne won’t be serious factors. (Dale Earnhardt Jr. failed to qualify for the postseason.)

Except, of course, this was the widespread belief last year, then all Johnson did was win a playoff-best three races en route to win a seventh Cup championship, tying the all-time mark shared by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

So is the Hendrick summer swoon because the team fell behind, or a team prioritizing on being at its best during the 10 most important races of the year? The answer might be a bit of both.

“We have worked really hard to not let [another slump] happen in 2017, but dammit it did again,” Johnson said. “So, the one thing that is after the summer is the fall, and we always get hot in the fall. We are certainly hoping for more of the same.”

What is not in question is whether one should dismiss Johnson’s chances to win a record-breaking eighth title. As Johnson and mastermind crew chief Chad Knaus have continually demonstrated, they know how to rise to the occasion in the playoffs even when the No. 48 Hendrick team isn’t operating at its peak.

It cannot be stressed enough how well the 10-race playoffs set up for Johnson, whose four winningest tracks host races. He used that formula last year, winning a second round race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a third round race at Martinsville Speedway and the championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Never count 'em out, nope,” Busch said. “I've had friends over the years that have worked for Hendrick and have worked with the 48 team, they always say, ‘Man, when the first Chase race comes, Jimmie's got a switch that he flips on, and it's on.’ So we'll see if he can do it again. He has before, right? So don't count him out.”

How will the new points system factor?

The format on how NASCAR goes about crowning its champion may be unchanged. However, the points system and how points are distributed within the knockout format is radically different and will have a significant impact.

The advent of stage-racing provided drivers opportunities to collect points that are added to their total in each round. In essence, regular season success for the first time is now awarded in the playoffs, which can factor heavily in who transfers to the next round and who misses out.

This gives Truex, who won four races and a series-best 18 stage wins along with the regular season points title, a sizeable advantage. The Furniture Row driver will start the playoffs 20 points up on second-place Larson, and Truex’s bonus point accumulation is such that barring a complete collapse he’s a near-lock to make it to the third round.

“Obviously, Truex is probably 80 percent chance of making Homestead,” Hamlin said. “I think only two detrimental races in one round could possibly knock him out, but he's liable to win the third one.”

Larson and Busch, the third seed, also are well positioned to go on deep playoff runs because of how they performed during the regular season. At least this is the conventional wisdom. Surely there will be aspects of the new system that will come to the forefront that weren’t realized before, and a driver buried in the standings can negate any deficit by winning and automatically advancing.

“I think it's going to be six or seven guys that are going to be very close to getting into that final four,” Hamlin said. “Which one? It's just which one has the right break, which one gets the caution at the right time that they need it to either take him in or take him out.”

Championship 4 favorites

Martin Truex Jr.

If he can execute anywhere close to what he did during the regular season, Truex should have little issue making it to South Florida with a shot at a first-ever championship.

Kyle Busch

After an uneven start to the season, Busch was excellent in the second with two wins and eight other finishes inside the top 10 over the past 13 races. Without a track in the playoffs where he’s not capable of winning, a second championship in three years is realistic.

Kyle Larson

Lacks consistency to outrun the Toyotas every week, and the fourth-year driver is still susceptible to the occasional mistake. Nonetheless, he’s fast and quite proficient on intermediate tracks, which make up half the playoff schedule including the finale at Homestead.

Jimmie Johnson

Yeah, he’s had a down year by his lofty standards with career-lows in top fives, top 10s, average finish and laps led. Still, never bet against the defending and seven-time champ. He’s more than earned the benefit of the doubt.

Playoff sleeper

Kurt Busch began the season with a bang, winning the Daytona 500 and having a victory lane celebration with Rob Gronkowski. Then, Busch largely underwhelmed with just a lone top-five in the subsequent 22 races. But the 2004 Cup champion closed out the regular finish with a flourish, posting three consecutive finishes of fifth or better. If he can continue that surge, a second title becomes a possibility.

Race to watch (besides the championship finale)

Talladega Superspeedway may no longer be the Round 2 elimination race, which diminishes drama to some degree. Still, the restrictor-plate track is the one venue in the postseason that gives every title-eligible participant a pit in their stomach due to its propensity for chaos, where drivers are often at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control.

How the Chase Works

Drivers: 16

Thirteen drivers qualified for the Chase by winning a race during the regular season:

Martin Truex Jr Kyle Larson Kyle Busch Brad Keselowski Jimmie Johnson Kevin Harvick Denny Hamlin Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ryan Blaney Ryan Newman Kurt Busch Kasey Kahne Austin Dillon

The remaining three spots were determined off points:

Chase Elliott Matt Kenseth Jamie McMurray

Rounds: 4

The first three rounds are each comprised of three races. The final championship round is just a single race.

Elimination races: 3

Four drivers are eliminated from contention each round, based on having the four lowest points totals. Win a race to advance to the next round automatically.

Champions: 1

Whichever of the four drivers still in the Chase finishes highest at Homestead-Miami Speedway wins the championship.

Chase playoff schedule

Round 1 (16 drivers)

Sept. 17: Chicagoland Speedway, 3 p.m., NBCSN

Sept. 24: New Hampshire Speedway, 2 p.m., NBCSN

Oct. 1: Dover International Speedway, 2 p.m. NBCSN

Round 2 (12 drivers)

Oct. 18: Charlotte Motor Speedway, 2 p.m. NBC

Oct. 15: Talladega Superspeedway, 2 p.m. NBC

Oct. 22: Kansas Motor Speedway, 3 p.m. NBCSN

Round 3 (8 drivers)

Oct. 29: Martinsville Speedway, 3 p.m., NBCSN

Nov. 5: Texas Motor Speedway, 2 p.m., NBC

Nov. 12: Phoenix International Raceway, 2:30 p.m. NBC

Championship Race (4 drivers)

Nov. 19: Homestead-Miami Speedway, 2:30 p.m. NBC

[everettwilkinson]

W.H. UNDER SIEGE, again — REINCE comes under fire, but why? — CROWLEY: ‘Trump Jr.’s love affair with Moscow’ — McCONNELL's legislative wish list — SCARBOROUGH leaves GOP – B’DAY: Ryan Lizza

Good Wednesday morning. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL told lawmakers to expect to stay in session through the first two weeks of August. Here what he’d like to see accomplished in the coming weeks, according to several K Streeters: clear executive branch nominations, repeal and replace Obamacare, pass the National Defense Authorization Act, lift the debt ceiling and reauthorize the FDA user-fee structure.

— HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERS have stopped short of saying they’ll stay in session — and privately, some have vowed to stick to the schedule and leave for the summer at the end of July. We assume they’ll have to stay in session for the first week of August. Hope you bought refundable plane tickets!

Story Continued Below

THE UPSIDE of Congress staying in session: Lawmakers show they’re working.

THE DOWNSIDE: If they get nothing accomplished, they look incompetent. McConnell wants to clear a bunch of Trump administration nominees. But we’re skeptical that will break through with voters. Aides tell us they need to accomplish something tangible.

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/2lQswbh

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE — @realDonaldTrump at 6:19 a.m.: “My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!” … at 6:32 a.m.: “Remember, when you hear the words ‘sources say’ from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist.”

— ACTUALLY, THIS IS NOT TRUE. We don’t know any reporters who make up sources. We don’t make up sources. And Trump’s White House often asks to be quoted on background — which means identifying a source by a vague title, like “White House aide” or “administration official.” And this story about the president’s son is not based on a “source.” It’s based on emails that Donald Jr. sent and later released. to The president also retweeted a Fox News tweet that featured Jesse Watters saying Donald Jr. is a victim and a Fox & Friends segment praising Mitch McConnell.

THE MAIN BAR — THE NYT STORY THAT STARTED THIS ALL — A1 — “Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said,” by Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo. http://nyti.ms/2tHvMYB

THE WHITE HOUSE UNDER SIEGE STORIES…

— POLITICO’S TARA PALMERI and JOSH DAWSEY: “White House aides feeling ‘helpless’ as Trump Jr. scandal blossoms”: “White House aides feel blindsided by the bombshell revelations around Donald Trump Jr.’s campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer, while the president is using his relatively light schedule to watch TV and fume about the latest scandal, according to interviews with half a dozen White House officials and advisers. Unlike prior Russia-related controversies, the White House is not minimizing the political ramifications of Trump’s eldest son’s decision to meet with the Kremlin-linked lawyer after being offered information that he was told would ‘incriminate’ Hillary Clinton as ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.’”

“But top West Wing aides are exasperated by their limited ability to steer the damage control and the risk that more damaging news has yet to emerge. One Trump adviser said the White House was ‘essentially helpless’ because the conduct happened in an ‘anything goes’ campaign that had few rules. This person said he had spoken to several people in the White House on Tuesday, and that ‘none of them knew anything about Donald Trump Jr.’s meetings,’ despite the fact that top adviser Jared Kushner was also present for the controversial Trump Tower sit-down. Many of the White House aides had previously dismissed the Russia stories as ‘conspiracy bullshit,’ this person said, but that this scandal was not being dismissed as that.” http://politi.co/2tGPK5R

— NYT’S PETER BAKER and MAGGIE HABERMAN: “Rancor at White House as Russia Story Refuses to Let the Page Turn”: “As Air Force One jetted back from Europe on Saturday, a small cadre of Mr. Trump’s advisers huddled in a cabin helping to craft a statement for the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to give to The New York Times explaining why he met last summer with a lawyer connected to the Russian government. Participants on the plane and back in the United States debated how transparent to be in the statement, according to people familiar with the discussions. Ultimately, the people said, the president signed off on a statement from Donald Trump Jr. for The Times that was so incomplete that it required day after day of follow-up statements, each more revealing than the last. … The Russia story has become the brier patch from which the president seemingly cannot escape. … Advisers said the president was annoyed not so much by his son as by the headlines.

“But three people close to the legal team said he had also trained his ire on Marc E. Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer, who is leading the team of private lawyers representing him. Mr. Trump, who often vents about advisers in times of trouble, has grown disillusioned by Mr. Kasowitz’s strategy … The strain, though, exists on both sides. Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues have been deeply frustrated by the president. And they have complained that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the president’s ear about the Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team. But one person familiar with Mr. Kasowitz’s thinking said his concerns did not relate to Mr. Kushner. The president’s lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and a freelancer more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the person said. While no ultimatum has been delivered, the lawyers have told colleagues that they cannot keep operating that way, raising the prospect that Mr. Kasowitz may resign.” http://nyti.ms/2sOYfsx

PERHAPS the most important detail of the day is Peter and Maggie’s reporting that shows the White House crafted Don Jr.’s statement.

— WAPO’S PHIL RUCKER and ASHLEY PARKER: “‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.’s Russia revelations”: “The White House has been thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle one another with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers. President Trump … is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken with him this week. …

“Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser; Jared Kushner, her husband and another senior adviser; and first lady Melania Trump have been privately pressing the president to shake up his team — most specifically by replacing Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff, according to two senior White House officials and one ally close to the White House. … After this story first published, Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman, said in a statement on behalf of Kushner and Ivanka Trump: ‘Jared and Ivanka are focused on working with Reince and the team to advance the President’s agenda and not on pushing for staff changes.’ … One White House official went so far as to stop communicating with the president’s embattled son, although this official spoke sympathetically about his plight, casting Trump Jr. as someone who just wants to hunt, fish and run his family’s real estate business.” http://wapo.st/2sOAC3G

BY THE WAY … Say what you want about Reince, but he has nothing to do with the scandals engulfing this administration. His job is literally impossible: he has to impose order on a president who thrives off chaos.

— JONATHAN LEMIRE and JULIE PACE of the AP: “As Russia scandal touches his son, Trump privately rages”: “The public has not laid eyes on the president since his return from Europe Saturday. But in private, Trump has raged against the latest Russia development, with most of his ire directed at the media, not his son, according to people who have spoken to him in recent days. The only comment from Trump on the matter for much of the day came in a brief statement via spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said Tuesday that the president believes his son is ‘a high-quality person.’” http://bit.ly/2uhCt5n

****** A message from the National Retail Federation: {Video} Retail business owners from Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Vermont and Maine have been selected as the 2017 top advocates for retail. Hear their stories. ******

NORM EISEN and RICHARD PAINTER, ethics chiefs for Obama and Bush, in the NYT: “Did Donald Jr. Break the Law?”: “It raises a host of potential criminal and other legal violations for Donald Jr. and others involved, including his brother-in-law Jared Kushner; Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman at the time; and perhaps the president himself. These new facts are a critical inflection point in the Trump-Russia matter. But they should not be exaggerated: The investigation has much further to go before Donald Jr.’s liability, or that of others, can be finally assessed.

“The defense that this was a routine meeting to hear about opposition research is nonsense. As ethics lawyers, we have worked on political campaigns for decades and have never heard of an offer like this one. If we had, we would have insisted upon immediate notification of the F.B.I., and so would any normal campaign lawyer, official or even senior volunteer.

“That is because of the enormous potential legal liability, both individually and for the campaign. The potential offenses committed by Donald Jr., his colleagues and brother-in-law who attended the meeting, and the campaign itself, include criminal or civil violations of campaign finance laws. These laws prohibit accepting anything of value from a foreign government or a foreign national. The promised Russian ‘documents and information’ would have been an illegal campaign contribution from a foreign government — and a priceless one.” http://nyti.ms/2uQkHTI

FROM 30,000 FEET — “Trump Jr.’s love affair with Moscow,” by Michael Crowley: “While President Donald Trump’s handful of trips to Russia have been meticulously scrutinized, a review of his son’s public statements spanning several years, as well as social media posts and interviews with Russia experts, shows that Donald Jr. spent far more time in the country than his father did, and developed personal ties there that continued beyond the November election. That might help to explain why Trump Jr. was so receptive to an approach last summer by a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton which, as an intermediary told him in an email, was part of a Kremlin effort to assist his father’s campaign.” http://politi.co/2uhipzU

DARREN SAMUELSOHN, “Trump Jr. delivers ‘smoking gun’ to Mueller: The email chain released by the president’s son shows an intent to collude with Russia, veteran prosecutors and white-collar defense attorneys say”: “Two of Donald Trump’s most senior campaign advisers — Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort — are also included in the ‘private and confidential’ email exchange, which the lawyers interviewed by POLITICO say exposes them to the same potential federal criminal statutes as Trump Jr., including prohibitions on the solicitation or acceptance of anything of value from a foreign national, as well as a conspiracy to defraud the United States.” http://politi.co/2tGYZTu

REPUBLICAN frustration on Capitol Hill with the continued drip, drip out of the Trump White House over its Russia scandal is hitting a new high. House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) exasperation was on full display in a brief Fox News interview Tuesday. “If you had a contact with Russia, tell the special counsel about it! Don’t wait until the New York Times figures it out!,” Gowdy said. “Someone needs to get everyone in a room and say, from the time you saw Dr. Zhivago until the moment you drank vodka with a guy named Boris, you list every single contact with Russia.” Still, Gowdy declined to say his oversight committee would investigate Russian interference, leaving that to special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Rachael Bade’s full report http://politi.co/2ucchZ3

MOSCOW’S NEW MAN IN D.C. — “Russian diplomacy about to get tougher edge in Washington,” by Ali Watkins: “A new — and likely more aggressive — chapter in Russian diplomacy is about to begin in Washington with the departure of Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, whose soft-power approach to D.C. will be taken over by noted hardliner Anatoly Antonov. The switch in what has become one of Washington’s most scrutinized jobs comes as the controversy over President Donald Trump and his allies’ ties to Moscow intensifies, especially with the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer at the height of the campaign after being told she could provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton as ‘part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.’

“The scandal has at times centered on secret meetings with Kislyak — a long-time and well-respected diplomat who held the top post in Washington for nine years before his 2016 meetings with Trump officials made him a politically radioactive figure. The 62-year-old Antonov is also a longtime diplomat, but he recently completed a nearly six-year stint as a deputy in Russia’s far more hardline defense ministry. Antonov’s arrival is expected to be a noted shift in Washington’s diplomatic community, where Kislyak was known as an affable fixture on the embassy party circuit, and an experienced political figure with routine official access to U.S. government circles.” http://politi.co/2v9Icqd

TRUMP’S TRIP TO PARIS — THE PRESIDENT is going to France for Bastille Day tonight. Here is what he is doing, per a background official to Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe: he is meeting Thursday with Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and then will also hold a bilateral meeting with with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump and Macron will also hold a news conference. The two, accompanied by their wives, are scheduled to have dinner. “The senior administration official is aware that [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel is [scheduled] to be in Paris earlier on Thursday, but does not expect POTUS to meet with her. ‘That’s not on the schedule right now,’ said a SAO. Trump returns back to Washington Friday.

BURGESS EVERETT and JEN HABERKORN — “Reeling Republicans take one last shot at Obamacare”: “Twenty-three years ago, President Bill Clinton and Senate Democrats canceled two weeks of the August recess to pass a major health care bill. They got nowhere. Now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying the same thing with the GOP for the August break, and it may lead to the same result. … There will be a vote to advance the bill next week, McConnell said Tuesday. And even if it fails, he made clear to his members at a party lunch that there will be no more false starts despite an increasingly downbeat feeling in the caucus. New text of the proposal will be made public Thursday, and a Congressional Budget Office analysis is expected on Monday. ‘We’re in gridlock,’ said Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He added sarcastically: ‘Now we’re going to look at a new approach. And we’re going to get a CBO estimate on Monday. Yay!’” http://politi.co/2uQmJDm

— NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL: “Republican voters to GOP: Keep working on Obamacare repeal,” by Steven Shepard: “The Republican base wants Senate GOP leaders to continue trying to repeal Obamacare despite recent setbacks, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. A clear majority of Republican voters, 67 percent, want the GOP to continue to work to repeal and replace the health care law, compared to only 21 percent who want party leaders to move on. Among all voters, 40 percent want congressional Republicans to continue to work on a new health care bill, and 47 percent want them to move on.

“The poll also suggests that Republicans want Senate GOP leaders to shift gears and work with Democrats to pass a new health care bill. More than half of Republican voters who want the GOP to keep trying to repeal Obamacare, 54 percent, want their leaders to work with Democrats, while just 39 percent want them to work only with other Republicans.” http://politi.co/2uQunNQ

VALLEY TALK — “Paying Professors: Inside Google’s Academic Influence Campaign,” by WSJ’s Brody Mullins and Jack Nicas: “Google operates a little-known program to harness the brain power of university researchers to help sway opinion and public policy, cultivating financial relationships with professors at campuses from Harvard University to the University of California, Berkeley. Over the past decade, Google has helped finance hundreds of research papers to defend against regulatory challenges of its market dominance, paying $5,000 to $400,000 for the work … In some years, Google officials in Washington compiled wish lists of academic papers that included working titles, abstracts and budgets for each proposed paper — then they searched for willing authors, according to a former employee and a former Google lobbyist.” http://on.wsj.com/2tGSz6S

THE JUICE …

— ELIANA JOHNSON is reporting that the Heritage Foundation has hired the Atlanta-based executive search firm CarterBaldwin to assist in its efforts to find a replacement for former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to lead the organization. The full report http://politi.co/2tFCE8O

— HAPPENING TODAY — FBI director nominee Christopher Wray has his confirmation hearing today. It will be live streamed on Twitter via PBS NewsHour. http://bit.ly/2t3g0J3 GET SMART FAST with Seung Min Kim and Darren Samuelsohn’s piece on “The 6 toughest questions for the next FBI director”: http://politi.co/2uhL207

— SCOOP: “Donna Brazile to publish book on 2016 titled ‘Hacks,’” by Isaac Dovere, whose birthday is today: “Brazile will celebrate the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s election with the publication of her book ‘Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House.’ … Brazile’s publisher Hachette promises a book that is ‘equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future.’ The publisher did not say how much the book deal was worth.” http://politi.co/2tdJXkJ

PHOTO DU JOUR: Former Vice President Joe Biden walks through the hallways on Capitol Hill on July 11. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

FOR AVIATION GEEKS — “Trump rethinking aviation agreements with Gulf countries,” by Andrew Restuccia and Michael Grunwald: “The Trump administration is rethinking a pair of international aviation agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar amid allegations that the Persian Gulf nations are unfairly subsidizing their state-run airlines, three administration officials told POLITICO.

“The administration is facing increasing pressure from three of the biggest American airlines — Delta, United and American — to do something about the Gulf carriers’ low ticket prices, with the U.S. airlines arguing they can’t compete with the UAE and Qatar’s deep pockets.

“National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, chief of staff Reince Priebus and other senior administration officials have been discussing the issue behind the scenes for months, the officials said. Staffers from the NEC, National Security Council, Transportation Department and other agencies huddled for the latest strategy meeting on the aviation agreements last week while Trump’s senior aides were in Europe.” http://politi.co/2uhuK7g

HOT ON CONSTITUTION AVE. — “Sources: Cohn is Trump’s top candidate to replace Yellen at Fed,” by Ben White and Victoria Guida: “President Donald Trump is increasingly unlikely to nominate Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen next year for a second term, four people close to the process said. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is now the leading candidate to succeed Yellen as the world’s most important central banker … If Trump taps Cohn for the Fed, it could enrage economic nationalists in the White House and some staunchly conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill who don’t like the former Goldman Sachs president’s background as a Democrat who generally favors free trade.” http://politi.co/2vbCnIC

TWO GOOD MCCLATCHY STORIES — “Trump-Russia investigators probe Jared Kushner-run digital operation,” by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon: “Investigators at the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign’s digital operation – overseen by Jared Kushner – helped guide Russia’s sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016. Congressional and Justice Department investigators are focusing on whether Trump’s campaign pointed Russian cyber operatives to certain voting jurisdictions in key states – areas where Trump’s digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support for Hillary Clinton, according to several people familiar with the parallel inquiries.” http://bit.ly/2udFhiU

–“Lawyer that met Don Jr. had ties to Russian government, spy agency,” by Kevin G. Hall: “The Russian lawyer at the center of Donald Trump Jr.’s scandal over possible collusion with Kremlin election meddlers has denied she has ties to the Russian government. But she threatened action by the Russian security service, the FSB, against a rights group working to expose corruption by Russian government officials, according to information in the possession of U.S. prosecutors who had been investigating a large and complex money laundering case involving Russian funds.” http://bit.ly/2tM2xlP

FUN READ – “Inside the Semi-Secret Life of Rob Goldstone, the Playboy Who Could Bring Down Trump,” by The Daily Beast’s Gideon Resnick and Kelly Weill: “Before he organized a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected attorney, Rob Goldstone was known as a New York City playboy who hosted vodka-soaked parties with younger acquaintances in the Russian Tea Room, a Manhattan restaurant blocks away from Trump Tower. Goldstone, 57, is a British music publicist and former journalist based in the New York area, who has represented musicians including John Denver and Michael Jackson. … [O]ne former member of the scene [said it was the] ‘kind of crowd where an apartment party in a loft on Madison Square Park turned into a limo ride turned into illicit substances in the bathrooms at Boom Boom Room, all of it getting paid for … somehow. One of the fixtures in this scene was Rob, who was always the only old guy in the group.” http://thebea.st/2tLUUvZ

****** A message from the National Retail Federation: The overwhelming majority of retailers are small businesses, with more than 98% of all retail companies employing fewer than 50 people. While small in size, their voices are loud and clear when fighting to be heard on decisions and policies that impact their businesses and the customers they serve every day. Hear more industry stories on NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast. ******

TRUMP INC. – “Hackers have been stealing credit card numbers from Trump’s hotels for months,” by WaPo’s Abha Bhattarai: “Guests at 14 Trump properties, including hotels in Washington, New York and Vancouver, have had their credit card information exposed, marking the third time in as many years that a months-long security breach has affected customers of the chain of luxury hotels. The latest instance occurred between August 2016 and March 2017, according to a notice on the company’s website, and included guest names, addresses and phone numbers, as well as credit card numbers and expiration dates. The breach took place on the systems of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a reservation booking service used by Trump Hotels, but did not compromise the Trump Hotels’ systems.” http://wapo.st/2sOBxRs

BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “L.A. is a virtual lock to host 2024 or ‘28 Olympics after IOC vote,” by L.A. Times’ David Wharton: “The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday approved an unusual proposal to name two winners in the Summer Games bidding race between Los Angeles and Paris. Gathering at a meeting in Switzerland, IOC members unanimously agreed to the idea of awarding 2024 to one city and 2028 to the other. The decision all but assures that Southern California will get the Olympics back for a third time.” http://lat.ms/2t0XT6x

MEDIAWATCH — “Scarborough tells Colbert: ‘I’m not going to be a Republican anymore’,” by Cristiano Lima: “Joe Scarborough, the longtime Republican political figure and MSNBC host whose public feud with President Donald Trump grew to a fevered pitch two weeks ago amid a series of heated attacks, said he is leaving the Republican Party. ‘I’ve got to become an independent,’ Scarborough, a one-time Republican congressman and prominent figure in the conservative media sphere, told CBS’ Stephen Colbert during an interview airing Tuesday night.” http://politi.co/2tLrPkb … 5-min. video http://bit.ly/2vbtsHi … Scarborough plays his song “Monkey House” http://bit.ly/2u7VLK5

SPOTTED: Valerie Jarrett and Betsy DeVos last night dining at Fiola Mare. They were at different tables … Rep. Karen Handel (R-Ga.) walking out of a house on Q street near Dupont Circle just before 8 p.m. yesterday, talking on the phone, still wearing her American flag pin … RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel waiting yesterday at the Pittsburgh airport for a delayed flight to DCA … Reps. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) and Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) enjoying cigars last night on the patio at Bullfeathers … Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) walking across Connecticut Avenue yesterday evening headed to Morton’s Steakhouse.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED last night at a dinner and a special screening of “Wonder Woman” at the MPAA, hosted by Carol Melton, EVP of Time Warner: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Susan Molinari, Deborah Rutter, Deborah Lehr, Sally Quinn, Genny Ryan, Lynda Carter, Capricia Marshall, Ruth Marcus, Tammy Haddad, Hilary Rosen, Mary Brady, Heather Podesta, Penny Lee, Ann Stock, Amy Weiss, Jennifer Maguire, Melissa Moss, Elizabeth Bagley, Kathy O’Hearn, Sandra Sobieraj Westfall.

— Amazon Public Policy celebrated its third annual Prime Day with a party last night at the National Union Building. They served banana daiquiris, ate from a raw bar and munched on popcorn. Pics http://smu.gs/2uh1BJn SPOTTED: Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Internet Association’s Michael Beckerman and Amazon’s Jay Carney, Brian Huseman.

TRANSITIONS – Alexandra Smith has been named the new executive director of America Rising PAC. She is the former chairwoman of the College Republican National Committee and will be the first woman to lead the organization. Colin Reed will now be a senior adviser at AR, working on tracking potential 2020 Democrats. Story from Katie Glueck and Alex Roarty on changes at the group http://bit.ly/2uQhCTy … Kristin Lee is joining Facebook’s communications team to work on Internet connectivity and access. She most recently served as comms director and senior policy adviser for the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. … The Center for International Policy has hired Salih Booker as its new executive director. He most recently was VP of external relations at the U.S. Institute of Peace. …

… The Herald Group has added Marc Brumer, former comms director for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) as a VP. It has also hired Jason Cannata, formerly with FP1 Strategies, as a director and Seth Guidry, formerly with Lukens Company, has joined as a digital account manager. … Lara Brown has been formally named the director of GW’s Graduate School of Political Management. She’s been at GW for four years as a professor and has been the school’s interim director for the last year.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS — Sacha Samotin, co-founder of political data analytics firm Applecart, got married this weekend to Laura Resnick, Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University, in a traditional Jewish ceremony at Natirar Estate overlooking the hills of Somerset County, New Jersey. The couple met in 2013 as undergrads at UPenn. Pool report: “Wedding highlights included a hilarious musical homage to the couple by best-man Noah Samotin and a speech from the bride’s sister, Allison Resnick, quoting Virgil in the original Latin. Former Schwarzenegger/Huntsman/Kasich strategist Matt David was spotted on the dance floor enthusiastically lifting the bride’s chair aloft during the hora.” Pic http://bit.ly/2uQogsT

— SPOTTED: Sacha’s business partners Matt Kalmans and Anthony Liveris, Audrey Scagnelli, Campbell Curry-Ledbetter, Mitchell Resnick, Luke Thompson, Allan Anders, Elizabeth Ashford and Conyers Davis, Stephen Geer and Szelena Gray.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Harley-Davidson lobbyist April Canter Bohrer and NAM’s David Bohrer (who was a photographer for former VP Cheney) welcomed Mia Bohrer into the world last week. “Mom and baby are doing great; April says papa Dave is a already a ‘supreme swaddler and master diaper changer’!” Pic http://bit.ly/2u85hNb

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, celebrating with “a quiet dinner at home with my two boys.” Asked how the Trump is presidency going: “Off to a brilliant start!” Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2sOZ4Sf

BIRTHDAYS: Susan Axelrod … Josh King, former Clinton visual guru, author of “Off Script,” and now weekend host of Slate’s “Trumpcast” (h/t old White House buddy Jeremy Gaines) … Matt Rosenbaum, Treasury alum now at Paul Weiss, is 31 … Adam Elias, COS to Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) … Politico’s Isaac Dovere is 37 … Beth Lester Sidhu, COO of PE firm The Stagwell Group and a Politico alum … Brendan Daly, senior director of comms at Save the Children Action Network and former comms director for Nancy Pelosi (h/t Allie Wright and) … Christie Vilsack … Jason Childress … Paul Shone (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Eric Ueland, who has been nominated to be under secretary of state for management, is 52 … Thea McDonald … newly upped entertainment spox Brandon Shaw of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations leaves youth behind … Eva Brown … Ginny Justice … Javier Folger, director of marketing and comms for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (h/t Jon Haber) …

… Alex Levy, president of speechwriting firm A.H. Levy & Co. … Jordan Gehrke, partner of Vertical Strategies and a Ben Sasse alum … John Gans Jr. … David Lerman … Nicole Narea … Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) is 63 … Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is 41 … former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) is 8-0 … former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is 59 … Angela Belden Martinez … Ashley Williams … CBS News’ Mary Walsh … Gregorio Gomez, investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs … documentary and news producer and writer Basel Hamdan is 36 … Jessica Hanks, SVP at DKC … Brian Schoeneman is 4-0 … Debbee Keller, director of public affairs at WeWork … Rachel DiCarlo Currie … Seton Motley … writer-producer Brian Grazer is 66 … actress Michelle Rodriguez is 39 … Rachel Brosnahan (“House of Cards”) is 27 … Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is 2-0 (h/ts AP)

****** A message from the National Retail Federation: The overwhelming majority of retailers are small businesses, with more than 98% of all retail companies employing fewer than 50 people. While small in size, their voices are loud and clear when fighting to be heard on decisions and policies that impact their businesses and the customers they serve every day. Hear more industry stories on NRF’s Retail Gets Real podcast. ******

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