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Good morning! I hope you rating 25 factors in the present day.
Prop Bets!
Red Gatorade tub, please
Forget the commercials and even the conventional wagers and parlays. The finest a part of the Super Bowl is the prop bets.
For these uninitiated, prop bets are a number of the dumbest — and most enjoyable — wagers you can also make. What time will kickoff really occur? What shade shirt will the anthem singer put on? Things of that nature.
We have our prop wager listing prepared for this weekend already. Details + picks:
- What color Gatorade will douse the winning coach? Orange and yellow are favored. We actually have a desk in there breaking down Gatorade shade by 12 months. Fun truth: the Gatorade shade for every Super Bowl bathe is chosen by Gatorade yearly, and so they’ll line up three completely different coolers on the sideline after the sport with completely different flavors in every. Give me crimson/pink at +500.
- How long will Chris Stapleton’s anthem be? The nation star shall be belting out the nationwide anthem this 12 months, and the over/beneath is hovering at simply over two minutes proper now. The final 4 anthem occasions: 1:51, 1:49, 2:01, 2:00. I’ll put $1 on the beneath.
- What will Rihanna sing first? “Don’t Stop the Music” is favored at +300, however I don’t purchase that. Give me “We Found Love” at +700. Smash.
There are additionally loads of prop bets for the actual game. First landing scorer, MVP choose, opening kickoff end result, and many others. We have loads of time to ponder these.
As the NIL Turns
Inside the Rashada saga
No matter how his school profession seems, Jaden Rashada will all the time be related to the Wild West period of NIL in school sports activities. That’ll occur if you go from rumored $13.8 million contracts to $0.
Yesterday, Andy Staples and Stewart Mandel revealed the definitive story on Rashada’s recruitment. It helped illuminate the potential peril of the NIL panorama — and confirmed the way it wasn’t actually the participant’s fault in any respect.
Some key tidbits:
- Rashada’s contract with Florida’s NIL collective would’ve paid him as a lot as $375,000 per thirty days throughout his junior 12 months. It is bonkers cash for a child who’s by no means performed a school snap. Kenny Pickett’s rookie contract with the Steelers is $14.1 million over 4 years.
- The contract additionally contained a clause that allowed termination at any time, purely as much as the collective’s discretion. Two days after the primary cost was due, Rashada obtained a letter from the collective notifying him of contract termination. No purpose was given.
- So Rashada requested out, and was left looking for a brand new dwelling after everybody else had already discovered theirs. He landed at Arizona State, the place his father performed. A supply advised The Athletic he has no NIL association in place.
Everyone concerned says Rashada is an effective child. The entire course of has clearly taken a toll on him, too. Until we get some shreds of regulation, athletes like Rashada can get churned out of a system supposed to assist them.
The full story is price your time in the present day.
Briefs
Tom Brady’s hole 12 months
The not too long ago retired quarterback mentioned yesterday that he plans to take a year off earlier than becoming a member of the FOX sales space for the 2024 season. What do you assume he’ll do in his time without work? Backpack throughout Europe? Become extra of an influencer? He’s already posting bizarre thirst traps on Instagram. For what it’s price, the delay might be a superb transfer, as Richard Deitsch factors out, given the goodwill Greg Olsen has constructed this 12 months. Olsen will get to name the Super Bowl with out getting hammered with Brady questions, and Brady will get a 12 months off. Not unhealthy.
More on the Man City scandal
The Premier League remains to be reeling after asserting greater than 100 monetary truthful play-related costs in opposition to Manchester City yesterday. Our UK workforce put collectively a brilliant explainer on all the costs, which stem from the membership allegedly deceptive the EPL on its financials. The fallout from your complete saga could possibly be unprecedented. It’s necessary sufficient to warrant a line-by-line annotation of the Premier League’s preliminary assertion. Sam Lee additionally has a behind-the-scenes look on the day nobody at Man City noticed coming.
The Race to 25 is on
A real assertion: Iowa’s offense goes to be must-see TV in 2023. Yesterday, the school announced a $50,000 pay reduce for maligned offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, the son of head coach Kirk Ferentz. The OC additionally obtained a brand new contract clause: Iowa should common a minimum of 25 factors per recreation subsequent season whereas this system wins a minimum of seven video games. If he doesn’t attain both mark, he’s gone.
Iowa averaged 17.7 factors per recreation final season, a efficiency that induced many to name for the youthful Ferentz’s job. Crucial caveat: the clause doesn’t specify offensive factors per recreation, which means the Hawkeyes protection — which scored 24 % of the workforce’s touchdowns final season — may also help Brian Ferentz’s trigger. The Race to 25 shall be magical.
Pulse Market
Anyone have $10 million we are able to borrow?
Washington Commanders proprietor Daniel Snyder is already a really wealthy man, with a internet price round $4 billion. But he stands to make gobs extra. While he mulls selling the franchise, which might internet him round $6 billion, he’s additionally making an attempt to set a Washington DC-area actual property report.
Snyder listed one in every of his space estates for a cool $49 million yesterday. Some incredible particulars:
- It was the “the formal estate of Jordan’s King Hussein and Queen Noor” earlier than Snyder bought it.
- If you set down 20% — or about $10 million — your month-to-month mortgage cost shall be simply $283,000. Swipe the cardboard.
- The 15-acre property additionally comes with two separate visitor homes, a 12-car storage, a movie show and gardens landscaped “in an 18th-century style known as jardin à l’anglaise.”
The present title holder for largest actual property buy within the space? That could be Snyder, who bought a different estate, in Alexandria, for $48 million in 2021.
If everybody chips in $5 or so, we are able to mint our first Pulse HQ.
Pulse Picks
Mike Sando makes six bold predictions for this NFL offseason. Aaron Rodgers goes, Lamar Jackson stays.
Eagles sort out Lane Johnson consumes 5,500 energy per day. Zach Berman has a incredible story on his eye-popping diet, which features a meal dubbed “Monster Mash.”
Stephen Nesbitt up to date his factors system to create “Wild-Card Era” MLB franchise rankings. Why are you so miserable, Pittsburgh?
Leeds sacked manager Jesse Marsch. The American lasted lower than a 12 months on the job, and Leeds hasn’t gained a match in practically three months.
Mark Puleo has a fun one: LeBron James has confronted 9 completely different father-son duos. Which one has he scored essentially the most factors in opposition to?
We had loads of splashy MLB offers this winter. Our baseball employees picks every team’s best under-the-radar move heading into 2023.
Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi rank the best NASCAR drivers of all time, Nos. 50-26.
A.J. Green announced his retirement from the NFL. For a seven-year interval, he was arguably one of the best wideout within the league — he made seven straight Pro Bowls to begin his profession, one thing solely he and Tyreek Hill have executed.
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas/ USA Today)