Piscataway is turning up for the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes, folks:
Kyle Flood said on his radio show the team will wear scarlet "with a twist" on Saturday.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) October 22, 2015
It will be "the best atmosphere in college football" according to Rutgers' frontman. (To be fair, Saturday will be the biggest game in Flood's head coaching career that will come to an end after this season.)
WOULD THEY SAY IT TO HIS FACE NOW THOUGH? Ryan Shazier is a first-round draft pick and a certified NFL player.
But Shazier has alopecia, which means his social upbringing wasn't the smoothest.
From ESPN.com:
Ryan Shazier's hair would fall out in patches, which kids in the stands at his football games would notice when he took off his helmet. The laughing and taunting was clearly audible to his parents.
“My wife was ready to fight in the stands,” Vernon Shazier, Ryan’s dad, said by telephone. “People are cruel.”
Patchy.
Patch.
Cue ball.
One of the best reasons to never have children: You can avoid youth sports entirely. I once knew a woman who got keyed (yes, like a car) over youth baseball (Marion, stand up!).
I don't even want to know what these hooligan parents have graduated to. I'm not trying to get shivved over my mediocre son's flag football league.
Yet the Shaziers persevered, and Ryan is out here cashing checks on those miserable trolls. Now, he's looking to give back.
Now an emboldened 23-year-old set to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers' lineup after a four-week absence due to a shoulder injury, Shazier is ready to help kids that are dealing with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes partial or full hair loss.
Recently posting an Instagram picture of NBA player Charlie Villanueva promoting alopecia awareness was a first step. Talking to Villanueva about how he can help was the next step. Now, he’s got his agency, Creative Artists Agency, involved.
“I know there are a lot of people struggling with it right now,” Shazier. “I just took it and embraced it, and I really feel like it made me the person I am now. I definitely want to help out.”
Shazier is making an impact off the field, so let's hope he stays healthy enough to keep making an impact on the field. He's set to return this Sunday against Kansas City after missing the last four weeks to a shoulder injury.
DID JONES LOSE MILLIONS? Did Dolodale lose millions of dollars in guaranteed money by getting benched? Not as much as one might think, according to a voice whom I respect.
From CBSSports.com's Dane Brugler:
Probably not much. No one can say for sure, but Jones likely wouldn't have been a first rounder last season – not off of three encouraging, but average performances. And his draft projection for the 2016 class might be even tougher to peg, but given his physical traits, he's probably still in the 2nd-to-4th round range. While an earlier draft pick is obviously better and means more guaranteed money, there isn't a huge drop-off between the 50th selection in the draft ($4.5 million, four-year contract) and the 90th selection ($3.3 million, four-year contract).
Sitting Jones is probably for the best, not only for Ohio State's offense, but also for his long-term future.
Jones' skill set is ideally suited for a vertical offensive attack, utilizing play action and running the ball between the tackles, which then opens up options on the outside. The approach similar to what the Buckeyes showed in 2014 once Jones took over at quarterback. But the play-calling, tempo and personnel this season hasn't matched that design and doesn't fit what made Jones effective in the past.
I've cooled on Jones a bit as an NFL prospect. His footwork is inconsistent, and he has a tendency to lock onto his receivers. As Brugler notes, he's basically the same player he was in the winter.
Thankfully for him there are only about five Super Bowl-capable quarterbacks in the NFL. (Point in case in how desperate teams are for QBs: Jimmy Clausen is still in the league.)
PURDUE THROWS $60 MILLION INTO THE POT. Purdue — yes, Purdue! — announced a $60 million upgrade to its football facility on Wednesday. Let's all pause to marvel at that last sentence, please.
It hired a design firm, Populous, which toured the facilities of the Big Ten and Notre Dame.
Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska earned all-green (good) rankings.
Via FootballScoop.com:
25 years since an upgrade to Purdue's football facility! That's, uh, not shocking.
Also good to see Michigan's facilities, much like the Big House, lack that "wow" factor.
Notre Dame on par with Rutgers made me laugh too. Notre Dame won't win a title again in my lifetime, and depending on the rest of my life I may have that chiseled into my tombstone. ("Here lies D.J. Byrnes, a pauper who always knew Notre Dame wasn't shit.")
OLD SLOBS, OLD TRICKS. Hot take: Ed Warinner is good at his job.
Former #Slobs dominating at the next level @jackmewhort #Norwell pic.twitter.com/5RsuinuM8B
— The Ohio State Slobs (@OSU_Slobs) October 21, 2015
LES WEXNER GOES TO WAR. Les Wexner is out here in these frosty streets dealing with #billionaireproblems.
From Dispatch.com:
L Brands founder Leslie H. Wexner is suing the English auction house that sold him a stolen Ferrari.
Wexner paid $16.5 million for the 1954 vehicle last year, one of four of its type remaining in the world. He is seeking a refund and damages from auction house Bonhams after being sold the car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, according to a report in the London Evening Standard.
[...]
Built in 1954, the 12-cylinder car was once owned by Kleenex heir Jim Kimberly and had a top speed of 180 mph.
The car caught fire due to a wiring problem (must've been that famous Ferrari engineering) and was salvaged by a Manhattan Project atomic scientist(!!) from Westwood, Ohio.
There it was stolen and ended up in the hands of Belgium race car drivers(!!) before arriving at the auction house that tried to pawn a hot Ferrari to our billionaire friend Les.
I don't have $16,500,000 but if I did, I promise I'd something cooler than spend it on an inevitably creepy Kleenex heir's salvaged ride.
Still, I won't bust Les up about this too much as long as his Ohio State football checks keep clearing. Ohio State must keep up with Purdue, after all.
THOSE WMDs. The most hypnotic GIF... Students invent wheelchair that can climb stairs...The Alabama store that sells what people lose... #BoycottStarWarsVII and why the internet is trolling itself to death... Black Sabbath's 1972 cocaine budget: $75,000.
