This week, Good Men Project’s middle reliever, Wai Sallas has been called in to recap the NBA Trade Deadline, Daytona 500 and the NFL Combine.
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1. The NBA Trade Deadline has passed.
…Let’s play the match game. Can you match the names of the players who were traded and their new home addresses? Half? Three? 11 trades happened at the deadline, some disgruntled players left town as expected (Goran Dragic and Reggie Jackson), and there were those who were pleasant surprises (Kevin Garnett). Either way, the NBA once again proved it has figured out the most entertaining model to run a professional league.
Some of the highlights:
The Dragic brothers take their family exchange tour to the Heat.
KG to the T-Wolves.
Aaron Aflalo to the Trailblazers.
Some of the lowlights: Javale McGee to the Sixers (noooooo).
Collateral Damage: Less than 24 hours after Dragic was sent to the Heat and made them a serious contender to get back to the Finals, Chris Bosh will miss at least the remainder of the season after developing blood clots on one of his lungs. This is an instant where basketball falls a distant second to a player’s health and we wish Bosh all the best in his recovery.
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2. Daytona 500, where frugality meets fragility.
The Super Bowl of NASCAR lived up to the hype once again with cars going 3-wide at speeds that no sane person would feel comfortable exceeding.
Joey Logano took the checkered flag, but the chatter is surrounding NASCAR’s either inability or care to keep its drivers safe. The night before, driver Kyle Busch was injured in a multiple car wereck late during the Xfinity Series race and suffered a compound fracture of his right leg and a fracture of his left foot. Busch will be out indefinitely. Crashes happen, but when Busch’s car hit the interior wall that did not contain a SAFER barrier, it became negligent. SAFER barriers help protect drivers by absorbing the impact of the race car using energy-absorbing steel and foam. The reason, Daytona doesn’t have those barriers, $$$$. It cost $500 per foot. For a 2.5 mile track, that’s a lot of dough. Did we mention Daytona International Speedway brings in around $2 billion dollars per year?
Obviously, racers weren’t happy after the event.
I’m genuinely furious right now. Any wall in any of the top 3 series without safer barriers is INEXCUSABLE. It’s 2015.
— Regan Smith (@ReganSmith) February 21, 2015
Here’s to a speedy recovery for Busch and renovations to the tracks around the country who now are scrambling to add SAFER barriers.
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3. 40 yards to fame. Do you know where to find Hobart College? A lot of NFL execs will be asking the same thing after this weekend’s NFL Combine. That’s where Ali Marpet from Divison 3 Hobart College ran the 40 in 4.98 seconds. The fastest for an offensive lineman. Just to put that into perspective, potential number one pick Jameis Winston ran the 40 in 4.97 seconds. Today no Jim Rome’s radio show, Marpet said he could probably take Winston in the 40.
https://vine.co/v/OxlI0A7etPj
Now that I’d like to see.
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Photo Credit: Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
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A TV deal has nothing to do with Race tracks. Some super speedways have seen a decrease in ticket sales as much as 23% over 1 year. Daytona will have reduced its seating capacity to 101000 by 2016 down from what used to be 168000. Nashville has closed and Texas is on its last leg. Teams are loosing business value http://racingnomics.com/on-value-in-nascar/. If you want to complain about someone look at the board members and the Drivers who are paid so much. If they want to complain – let them complain to Brian France or cough up the money themselves. Collectively… Read more »
Also I might just add – the drivers earning millions a year are certainly not forking out to protect their own interests either.
Re the NASCAR bit – Motorsport is dangerous. Men are killed far and few between in motorsport compared to the dark years of the 1970s and 80s. Daytona may get revenue of $2m every year but without any idea of how much they spend each year we would need to check the books. A lot of race circuits around the world run at a loss (supported by local governments as means of tourism) or just breaking even. And I doubt NASCAR itself is helping out much seeing as its their series and they set the rules that govern the ultimate… Read more »
Hey Josh, Thanks for your comments. While motor sports may be down globally, NASCAR is enjoying a huge resurgence. Not only did they make over $8 billion in a new tv contract but it’s a 46% increase from their last deal. I agree that the sport of racing has come a long way, but there is no excuse to not have SAFER barriers. With the information and technology we have today, any opportunity to make the sport safer should be a necessity, not an option. If you would ever want to go into more detail regarding NASCAR or motor sports,… Read more »