Sports Time Travel

There was a fascinating discussion on SVP & Russillo today about sports in different eras. The premise, thought up by Russillo, was imagining a modern person playing sports in a previous time period. Russillo used himself as an example. He's about 6' 1" and 230 lbs and wondered how he would fare in comparison to the players of the 1884 World Series Champion Providence Grays. Here's their roster. The tallest player on the roster was 5' 11" and the heaviest was 190 lbs. Russillo argued that he, being a decent athlete though not one that played any college or pro sports, would be able to hold his own. Van Pelt was skeptical. I'm inclined to agree with Russillo. They did agree that the people of 1884 would probably think the nearly 6' 7" Van Pelt was some kind of circus freak.

SVP & Russillo Ending

My day took an awful turn earlier in the week when I heard that SVP & Russillo will be ending at some unspecified point in the future as Van Pelt is going to be the host of a midnight Sportscenter that will apparently be something like a late night show. Now if that idea has any chance of working I think SVP is the one to pull it off, but I'm probably not going to be able to watch it and it won't make up for missing out on what has often been the best three hours of my weekdays. Where else can you get gold like this?



The other problem is that Russillo's contract is ending soon to so it's a question as to whether he will be continuing on the show or at ESPN at all. Russillo has become my favorite ESPN personality so if he sticks around I think a new show would still be good (though I'm not crazy about the suggestions I've seen for co-hosts) but if he leaves there's going to be a giant hole in my afternoons and it's going to be a lot tougher to get through those spreadsheets.

77

I'm not much of an NBA fan but I do hear a lot about if since I listen to SVP & Russillo all the time. Luckily, they generally make it interesting even for non-fans. A story they mentioned the other day got my attention. Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors apparently regularly shoots 100 3-point shots in practice. On Tuesday he made the first 77 in a row, then 94 of 100 total. That would be unreal even for free throws, it's absolutely ridiculous for 3-pointers. I'm not sure I can even wrap my mind around being that good at something that difficult.

Losing

Ryen Russillo made (approximately) this point the other day on the show: The 76ers, a team trying to lose, are 2-20. The Pistons, a team trying to win, are 4-19. That's kind of depressing if you're a Pistons fan.

Stafford

Matthew Stafford was interviewed on SVP & Russillo today. There's a good bit where SVP asks if he should drop Stafford as his fantasy quarterback so he doesn't feel as much pressure to perform.

"You're expecting to get screwed over."

This is a great rant from Ryen Russillo.

QB Stock Game

Today on SVP & Russillo the guys unveiled their QB Stock Game. The rules are as follows:

Each QB has been assigned a price based upon their record and QBR (it's QBR divided by 10 plus win differential divided by four). You get $1,000 to spend and must select one QB from every tier. QB prices will be adjusted after the first four weeks of the season. Please note that any QB who isn't listed below is a $3 IPO.

The list of prices is at the link. I thought this sounded fun so I'm going to play along. My picks:

QB	Price	Shares	$
Tom Brady	8.11	20	162.20
Jay Cutler	6.39	35	223.65
Matthew Stafford	4.75	98	465.50
Robert Griffin III	2.26	65	146.90
		Total	$998.25

If you're interested feel free to play along and post your picks.