"The Stack" 7-21-17
Some things you just don’t see coming, but it’s okay and that’s what happened Thursday night and Friday morning which is why The Stack is posting so late. Some pretty big news happened Thursday and today, but we’ll hold off the Kyrie Irving talk until Monday. Now though, let’s get right to it and see what is in “the stack” for today, Friday, July 21st:
Hugh Freeze resigns from Ole Miss
With just over a month until college football begins its season, the Ole Miss Rebels are in the midst of some ugly headlines after head coach Hugh Freeze resigned Thursday. This came only hours after the school was ready to fire him after finding that Freeze was calling a female escort service with a university phone. While that might not quite be the biggest reason to fire someone, it was the last straw for Ole Miss. Ole Miss is already receiving penalties for recruiting violations that is affecting the 2018 class and very well may be impacting many more future seasons. Freeze was the culprit of these violations. Now will Ole Miss take the success that they had with the football program under Freeze’s leadership? Absolutely. They’ve beaten Alabama twice, made it to a New Year’s Six Bowl game and have made Ole Miss a winning football program, but dark days are coming. Hopefully for the sake of Ole Miss, they’ve established that they are indeed a school that can keep a football program successful. With interim coach Matt Luke taking over, there can be some stability, but guys like Chip Kelly (currently unemployed as a head coach) and Brian Kelly (Notre Dame) will be linked to the job should it become available so Ole Miss can keep the winning going. That is, as long as the NCAA come down on it harshly, which I’m guess is going to happen.
O.J. Simpson paroled
It was a bizarre parole hearing for O.J. Simpson. He went on some rants. He didn’t sound all that intelligent at times. At points he didn’t seem that remorseful. But he has been a novel prisoner in jail for the last nine years (how has it been nine years already?) and the board that heard his hearing voted 4-0 in favor of parole for Simpson. He will be out in October. The news has been met with mostly disgust from the general public. How can this guy get away with murder and then only serve nine years of a 33 year prison sentence? As mentioned before he was a novel citizen in jail. Hopefully he will be a novel citizen outside the prison walls. In some ways, albeit very different, there are parallels between Simpson and Pete Rose. Both players were beloved in their respective sports. Simpson was beloved off of the field as well with his acting. While Rose merely bet on baseball (but never on his against his own team allegedly), Rose became a piranha and has been banned from the game. Yes he has signed plenty of autographs and made public appearances and now has gotten a job as an analyst with FOX, but he is still viewed by many in the baseball world as a guy who committed a very ugly sin in a beautiful game. What he did is not nearly as bad as Simpson allegedly murdering his ex-wife and her husband and being acquitted of the charges, but Simpson has largely been ostracized from the football world. Okay, he has been ostracized from the football world. His name does keep coming up and he is asked for autographs, but it wasn’t until he went after people in Vegas for some of his memorabilia that people really kind of tuned him out. He is a piranha. Again, what he did (if it’s true which most everyone believes is true) is way worse than what Rose did, but you can see some similarities. It might be a stretch.
The Open Championship impacted by weather
What a great first day of The Open Championship Thursday. The weather was nice for the most part and there were some good scores. Jordan Spieth is on his game as was Brooks Koepka. They were both at five under (-5). Guys were hitting some fantastic shots and knocking down their putts. Friday was a little different as weather played a significant role. Scores were difficult to come by yet Spieth was one under for the day. The elements were making it hard for some guys like Phil Mickelson who missed the cut. Weather will play a role this weekend too. Spieth, Koepka and Matt Kuchar are going to be in it all weekend and Hideki Matsuyama is waiting in the wings. Going to be a fun weekend at Royal Birkdale.
Coming up Monday: Kyrie Irving demands a trade, The Open Championship reaction and more.
