Jim O’Donnell: From Bubba Wallace to Ben Johnson and beyond, February ins and outs
JUST IN TIME TO COMPLETE all salting on a winter-laced Valentine's Day weekend, presenting another edition of Daily Herald sports & media ins and outs.
Still awaiting designation:
· Bubba Wallace and the Daytona 500 (Sunday, 1:30 p.m., Fox) … huge if he wins;
· Ongoing overwrought reaction to Tom Brady's “conflict of interest” (any time) … laughable; and,
· JuJu Watkins and No. 6 USC at Washington (6 p.m., Sunday, BTN) … the Big Ten's Ms. Mojo Risin' had 38 points, 11 rebounds and 8 blocks during a 71-60 win over No. 1 UCLA Thursday night.
THE LIST:
IN — MIKE VRABEL — Many nonaligned NFL experts aren't equivocating — the Patriots “won” the 2025 head coaching sweepstakes. … An organization with a dynastic owner who knows exactly what it takes to win Super Bowls hired the best available candidate to rekindle a championship culture.
OUT — BEN JOHNSON — Seasonal trinket du jour is now positioned to prove the old Harvard Graduate School of Education theories about all individuals being imbued with multiple intelligences. … High I.Q. on many contemporary offensive football matters; apparently bereft of completeness on what a trapdoor the HC job at Halas Hall is. … Where will Gentle Ben be coaching in 2029?
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IN — 4 NATIONS FACE-OFF — OK, so it's not “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and the omission of world champion Czechia is curious. … But at least the NHL tried to keep the competitive furor alive when it put new blades on its annual All-Star event. … Canada, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. complete round-robin play at Boston Monday with TD Garden also the site of the championship game Thursday night.
OUT — NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND — Nurse! … Players made a mockery of last winter's Jam 'n Fire Follies — a ludicrous 211-186 East victory. … So the result Sunday will be a cheese-dip night in which the 24 All-Stars will be split into three teams along with a Rising Stars outfit for a video game mini-tournament. … A TV event only for people who would also watch a retrospective on 3x3 Basketball medal play from last summer's Paris Olympics.
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IN — VIC FANGIO — Was there anyone in New Orleans last Sunday more deserving of savoring a Super Bowl championship than the former Bears defensive coordinator? … He supplemented his disruptive four-man PHL rush with three-man swims that dropped a lineman back to tie up Travis Kelce and left Patrick Mahomes wastin' away in Pocket Pressure-ville. … A tremendous midnight-green valedictory.
OUT — SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOWS — Has nothing to do with the social commentaries of Pulitzer Prize-winning hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar. … Has everything to do with the feeling that it’s been all downhill since Michael Jackson at SB XXVII (1993). … The NFL goes too long trying to be all things to some people. … The strain for spectacle diminishes the rhythm of the game.
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IN — THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS — Hyper-profitable, brawny and aggressive — isn't that how a major-market MLB franchise is supposed to operate? … Can Tom Ricketts please get some Vitamin LA-D shipped to Addison and Clark? … With stars like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they own the Pacific Rim and Dave Roberts appears to have mastered the crescendo to World Series glory.
OUT — THE WHITE SOX — Wasn't Jerry Reinsdorf taking his moribund franchise to Nashville? … And wouldn't that open up the South Side for the fresh A.L. air of an expansion team? … Anything better than a 122-loss season by the newest band of scruff marks will be a letdown. … Spending a dime on pastime at Rot-Rot Field '25 will be a bigger waste than overtipping at a bank drive-through.
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IN — ADAM AMIN, RYAN CHIAVERINI, DARREN PANG & JARRETT PAYTON — Wintertime stars on a dullard-packed Chicago TV sports viewscape. … Amin (Bulls) and Pang (Blackhawks) are national-class while toiling away on the lost planet airwaves of CHSN. … Chiaverini is a congenial chameleon at matriarchal WLS-Channel 7 News. … And Payton — now age 44 (!) — combines his WGN work with entrepreneurial interests including pieces of two grog shops in West suburban St. Charles.
OUT — WATCHING THE BULLS ON TV — Geez, what a surprise. … Sports Business Journal is reporting that Jerry's Crawlers have lost 63% of their viewing audience from last season. … That's the biggest shrinkage in the struggling NBA. … Maybe sideline mirth featuring Michael Reinsdorf, Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley with comic drop-ins by Ozzie Guillen could slow the exodus.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.