Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Whenever you have chosen to read this Skull Session, I send my greetings.
May I reward your presence here with an artificial intelligence-generated portrait of Brutus the Buckeye as a human?
[AI Generated] Portrait of Brutus the Buckeye as a human pic.twitter.com/9htVci7hFc
— Dan Reeve (@reeve11) September 6, 2022
I apologize if that ruined your day. Personally, I find this portrait extraordinary but also profoundly unsettling. Creepy, but also awesome? Terrifying, but also fantastic? I'll settle with insanely troubling that a computer created a humanistic image of a poisonous tree nut – one that has been burned into my corneas and will not soon forget.
Alright, I am moving on. Let's have a good Wednesday, shall we?
BRONNY x OSU THREADS. Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, broke the internet on Tuesday when he posted to Instagram wearing Ohio State threads. The pictures were taken over the weekend when the James family visited campus for the Buckeyes' top-five showdown with Notre Dame in the Horseshoe.
The high school hooper from Sierra Canyon is a four-star guard with the talent to play at a high level in college. According to the 247Sports composite, he ranks as the No. 45 overall player in the class of 2023, so seeing him sport the Clark Kellogg cursive jerseys was quite the treat for fans of the Basket Bucks.
Bronny James posted to Instagram wearing some Ohio State threads pic.twitter.com/LizqZRot3I
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) September 6, 2022
LeBron James has said he would have attended Ohio State if he weren't allowed to head straight for the NBA after high school. LeBron has also been a significant donor to the basketball program since his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the mid-2000s.
Those facts led many to believe Bronny could have the Buckeyes in the running for where he will attend college. His trip to Columbus and his Instagram photos wearing the uniforms confirm his interest in the school, so things are starting to get real for Chris Holtmann and his staff. It's time for them to secure the bag.
Speaking of which...
SECURING THE BAG. Ohio State is an NFL factory. 51 Buckeyes made the initial 53-man rosters for the 2022 NFL season, a number Field Yates of ESPN has as the third-most representation for a school in the professional league behind Alabama and LSU.
The 10 schools with the most players on 53-man rosters as Week 1 begins:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 6, 2022
1. Alabama: 58
2. LSU: 53
3. Ohio State: 51
4. Georgia: 43
5. Notre Dame: 35
6. Penn State: 34
7. Michigan: 33
T-8. Oklahoma: 32
T-8. Florida: 32
10. Iowa: 30
While the Buckeyes may trail the Crimson Tide and the Tigers for the largest amount of talent in the NFL, former Ohio State players will combine to make the most money in the NFL this year, per Nick Korte of Over the Cap.
And here's the 10 schools with the most 2022 cap dollars as Week 1 begins:
— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) September 6, 2022
1. Ohio State: $253.3M
2. Alabama: $230.1M
3. LSU: $208M
4. Clemson: $139.4M
5. Oklahoma: $138.5M
6. Wisconsin: $126.7M
7. Georgia: $125.5M
8. Mississippi St.: $124M
9. USC: $123.65M
10. Michigan: $119.5M https://t.co/AzNCGFUsgA
An ever-helpful website called Spotrac has us covered to confirm Ohio State's cap dollars are north of $253 million for the 2022 season. Washington Commanders star Terry McLaurin will bring in the most cash at $29.78 million, followed by the Saints' Marshon Lattimore ($24.10 million), the Chargers' Joey Bosa ($21.25 million), the Browns' Denzel Ward ($21.03 million) and the Saints' Michael Thomas ($15.8 million).
The lowest-paid Buckeye will be long snapper Liam McCullough, who will still bring in $705,000 in a one-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons.
So Ohio State might not have the most players in the NFL of any school, but their professional players sure know how to back up the Brinks trucks. Wait until C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Paris Johnson Jr. and Dawand Jones enter the league. Then the numbers will be even higher.
THE LONG ROAD BACK. Gareon Conley was a member of the most recent Ohio State national championship team in 2014 and a second-team All-Big Ten cornerback in 2016. He later became the No. 24 overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft to the Oakland Raiders.
It was easy to see why the Raiders’ front office liked him. Conley made plays like this on the regular:
Tyquan Lewis, Jalyn and Gareon Conley rose to the occasion for Ohio State to end the Spartans. pic.twitter.com/aiINo5koGo
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 19, 2016
Weeks before the Raiders' 2017 season, Conley signed a four-year deal worth $10.47 million with the franchise, but he would only spend the first three seasons of that contract in Oakland. Conley dealt with a series of ailments in his lower body throughout the first three years of his NFL career, including several injuries involving his right shin.
In October 2019, the Raiders traded Conley to the Houston Texans for a third-round pick in the 2020 draft. He played the remainder of the season with the Texans but suffered another setback in his right leg in July 2020 and landed on the physically unable to perform list. He spent the entire year on the injured reserve.
Over two years after his initial landing on the PUP list, Conley is still rehabilitating his leg and working his way back to the NFL. An athletic clothing company called Lasso is chronicling his progress in a YouTube series titled “The Long Road Back to the NFL.”
Conley has the talent to compete at a high level in the NFL. His body needs to cooperate. Best of luck to him on his continued efforts to rehabilitate and repair his body, and may we see him on the field sooner rather than later.
A BUCKEYE NATION. Ohio State fans have big hearts. They have huge hearts, for that matter. Maybe the biggest hearts in all the land.
As I scrolled through the interwebs looking for Buckeye-related content to fill the Wednesday Skull Session, I found a Reddit post that deserves some attention. The Reddit user is a person with Type 1 diabetes who thanked some friendly Ohio State fans that offered them food that kept their blood sugar from crashing and, therefore, would have required them to receive emergency medical attention. Here is what they wrote:
Hello,
I am hoping this reaches the people that helped save me from having a diabetic low after the Notre Dame game. My Father came up to you on Woody Hayes (Drive) on your way out to your car on West campus and asked if you had any sugar, and because you are a terrific human being, you responded with some Tic Tacs, some candy, and a bag of delicious chocolate covered popcorn . That act of kindness prevented me, the Type 1 diabetic, from needing an ambulance.You are a great representative of Buckeye Nation. All Buckeye fans, including myself, should aspire to be more like you.
Thank you!
My father and brother-in-law are diabetics, so I am well aware of the potential dangers low blood sugar can cause for those who endure the chronic disease and its effects. This kind and compassionate soul saved this person from crashing, possibly saving his life.
I pass along this Reddit user's thank you post as a message that Buckeye Nation is full of kind souls looking to do the right thing. That makes the fandom special. May the Ohio State faithful always look out for each other and make sure that the nation feels like a family.
SONG OF THE DAY. “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.
CUT TO THE CHASE. A 12-team College Football Playoff would make a lot of money... The Cleveland Plain Dealer will inexplicably cover the Cincinnati Bengals this season... Steph Curry aims to inspire with his new children's book... A deer temporarily stopped a football game when it ran on the playing field... A woman touted as Mother Theresa ran a $196 million Ponzi scheme.
