Penultimate Hump Day of July AND we have NFL teams reporting for training camp today? How lucky are we?
It’s all coming together, folks. I can smell it. We’re grinding right now, but it’s close to paying off. August begins next week. This Saturday marks the five-week countdown to our first college football game of the year.
Five weeks. I’ve got cartons of milk in the fridge older than that. Who has it better than us, boys and girls? Nobody.
Let’s roll.
Welcome to a Hump Day Nightcaps — the one where Olivia Dunne tells the Cleveland Indians (yep) to kick rocks while Paul Skenes stuffs them in a locker.
What else? I’ve got plenty of fallout from ESPN’s … rough … week, Gia Duddy checks in, and Charlie Woods is sounding more and more like his daddy on the course.
That’s a good thing, by the way. Always a good thing to be like Tiger on the course. Not so much off of it.
Grab you a brick wall to run through after you hear this speech from John Harbaugh, and settle in for a Hump Day ‘Cap!
Lordy, John. What was that? To be fair, Harbaugh hasn’t really had to do an introductory speech in two decades, so he’s understandably rusty.
But goodness … give me something. Anything. Let’s get these fellas fired up, coach! Football is back. That’s the worst thing I had to sit through today, and I had an hour Zoom call on “content creation.”
Oh well. Harbaugh and the Giants will be a story all year. Can’t wait to see that team on the field.
But first, let’s head out to the diamond with Olivia Dunne and the Pittsburgh Pirates, and get this call started.
For those who weren’t locked in on this week’s thrilling Pirates-Guardians game, Paul Skenes dominated over 7 innings, giving up one run and striking out 8 in a 7-1 win.
Some poor intern who runs Cleveland’s account jumped the gun when the game was tied 1-1, calling out Livvy with a slick little caption.
Our girl made sure to fire back:
“Game was Dunne at 7-1 Pirates.”
Don’t come at MLB’s First Lady and miss, Indians! Paul Skenes, by the way, appears to have his swagger back. After a rocky start to the summer, he’s given up just five runs over his last three starts (3-0) and stuck out 19.
The “Paul Skenes has lost his stuff” narrative appears to have been greatly exaggerated. Weird how those things happen, right?
Speaking of narratives … let’s talk about this Pat McAfee nonsense that’s starting to percolate in the wake of ESPN’s summer housecleaning.
For those who missed it (don’t know how that’s possible if you read OutKick/Fox News), the World Wide (Woke) Leader laid off (fired) dozens of employees yesterday.
Ryan Clark was let go during NFL Live. Cam Newton was canned. Tom Pelissero was cut. It was a gutting.
Pat McAfee, meanwhile, is reportedly earning close to $30 million and in talks to double that salary pretty soon.
JJ Watt joined the “progrum” yesterday and … addressed the elephant in the room:
“Slow, slow news day over there on the ESPN airwaves, huh?” Watt said to begin the interview. “I mean, besides the fact that you’re getting $100 million… Did they keep anybody? Or is everybody fired to pay you? I’m trying to figure that out.”
This narrative that ESPN fired all these guys to pay McAfee is so stupid. The narrative that Pat McAfee’s salary is ultimately what got Ryan Clark fired is even dumber.
Here’s the bottom line: ESPN views Pat McAfee as an asset. The network has put him everywhere since the two partnered up a few years back. Everywhere. Not just football, either.
He was just at the Home Run Derby last week! An event, by the way, that wasn’t on ESPN for the first time in three decades.
Pat McAfee didn’t cost Ryan Clark his job. Ryan Clark lost his job because he brought nothing to the table for ESPN, beyond an (increasingly) occasional headache because he said something stupid.
ESPN chose to cut ties with a liability, and put more money into an asset. That’s not a new or novel concept.
It’s how businesses have been run for years.
OK, let’s rapid-fire this Hump Day class into a big Hump Day night. First up? You know who ESPN absolutely should NOT have fired?
Karl Ravech.
Remember the old days at ESPN? The glory days of baseball when they had Ravech, Peter Gammons and Harold Reynolds on set? Mix in some John Kruk and Steve Phillips, and boy, was it an absolute party.
Now? ESPN doesn’t care about baseball. They’ve decided to put all their eggs in the NBA basket, and continue to distance themselves from baseball. The firing of Karl Ravech — who’d been there for 33 (!!!) years — was disgusting.
But not surprising.
Next? You know what else is disgusting? This little moment from Charlie Woods’ round earlier this week:
Taking a picture during someone’s backswing — a kid’s backswing — during a golf tournament is just the worst. God, these people are insufferable.
Personally, I think every golf course in America should adopt Augusta’s no cellphone policy. I’m serious. It’s, easily, the best rule in sports.
PS: How about the absolute disgust out from Charlie after that iron off the tee? Reminds me of this great Tiger moment from back in the day:
Man, I miss the Big Cat on the course. We had it so good.
OK, that’s it for today. Good work, everyone. In honor of NFL camps officially opening today, here’s infamous NFL Draft WAG Gia Duddy begging summer to stick around just a few weeks longer.
See you tomorrow.
Is McAfee to blame for Ryan Clark’s firing? Email me at Zach.Dean@OutKick.com.
