I am pretty sure I have started this column multiple times and it seems every few hours the past few days, I had to redo it.
Cody Thorn
So, lets get to it before more news hits the cycle and I have to hit delete again.
It seems like last Wednesday was about a month ago. I headed down to watch the Big 12 Tournament. Cheap tickets and a sporting event are an easy sell for me. I watched two games and in between the two, the NBA shut down.
Then, the NHL, MLB, MLS and the college basketball tournament was called off. The only bright side to all of that is without doing a March Madness bracket challenge, no one will get to see how bad I am at picking even 10-15 winning teams, total, and see me finish next to last.
I had come to terms with a small break for sports. And heck, on Wednesday, NASCAR and golf hadn’t made a decision yet so there was still hope for the weekend.
About the only sports going on last weekend was the MSHSAA Class 1-3 basketball championships. That decision drew the ire of many and the praise of others, who think most of the world is overreacting to this COVID-19 issue.
MSHSAA decided on Monday, March 16, to cancel the Class 4-5 championships. That came hours after a release on Sunday night, March 15, that MSHSAA released the times and places for those matchups.
A lot can happen in a few hours.
Then, by early evening on Monday, almost every school in the area decided to halt school through at least April 1.
I thought last Wednesday night was the night sports died, but apparently the hits keep coming a few days later. MSHSAA announced later on Monday that the spring sports championships could still go on.
But for now, there are kids who started practicing on March 2 and then on March 16 were told to stop a week before games were going to start.
I hope these high school kids will get a chance to play some kind of game this year. Last year seemed like a tough school year with so many snow days that school went until the very end of May.
Will this year be worse? Who knows?
There are plenty of former student-athletes in this area that the season is over for them in college. Chris Nilsen didn’t get a chance to win an indoor pole vault championship last weekend. Ryan Welty’s quest to win three national basketball championships in four years at Northwest Missouri State was quashed.
There are plenty of others in college who saw the season end. Heck, those kids at Park have barely started the spring season and now it is done.
I get why the schools and leagues are doing it. It is crazy, though, how even this virus finds a way to divide us. Maybe after the near shutdown of Kansas City on Monday by mayor Quinton Lucas, things will get better in the future. Maybe most of us who needs to stay inside can do so and others can enjoy a few extra days of spring break. Just for the love of Pete, just stop with the memes and the percentage of flu cases compared to coronavirus cases. Or how bad one administration is handling it compared to another. Just stop.
Off that soapbox and moving on …
THOUGHTS ON THE CHAMPS
The NFL free agency kicked off on Monday and as of now, before we print, the Kansas City Chiefs still have Chris Jones on the roster.
He is by far the biggest name out there of the 20 free agents for the Chiefs. The team did bring back running back Damien Williams, quarterback Chad Henne and linebacker Damien Wilson, while cutting ties with offensive lineman Cam Erving.
Later in the day on Monday, the Chiefs lost Emmanuel Ogbah and Kendall Fuller to free agency. For transparency’s sake, I thought they’d resign Ogbah and with Fuller, I had him under a coin flip initially. I figured they would more likely bring him back over Breeland.
The Chiefs tagged Jones as a franchise player but did the same thing with Dee Ford last year and then traded him. I remember sometime last year thinking there was no way the Chiefs would get rid of Ford, Justin Houston and Eric Berry. I was wrong. So with Jones, I’ll take a ‘wait and see’ approach. For now, I think he stays. He gets paid and the team cuts Sammy Watkins to save some money to pay for Jones.
So here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts on who’s back, gone, etc. I doubt many people care besides my mom (Hi, Mom) and that is just because she likes seeing my photos with my stories.
Back: Chris Jones, Chad Henne, Mike Pennel, Reggie Ragland, Stefen Wisnieswki, Blake Bell.
Gone: Terrell Suggs, LeSean McCoy, Xavier Williams, DeMarcus Robinson, Breshaud Breeland, Reggie Ragland, , Morris Claiborne, Spencer Ware, Darron Lee.
Coin flip: Anthony Sherman, Jordan Lucas, Keith Reasor.
THIS AND THAT
Finally, a few interesting things, or well, I thought were interesting.
JUUL is being sued by the state of Massachusetts for running ad space to market toward juveniles on Nickelodeon channel, Cartoon Network and Seventeen magazine. That has been a long-standing belief — targeting youths — from many local employees in health care and it is something that was mentioned a lot last year with the vaping craze. It will be curious to see where the case goes and if the suit actually turns out to be something where JUUL is fined for the allegations.
I read a story about former Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who recently released a song ‘Onna Wave.’ He has been out of the limelight a lot since his playing career ended but the former first-round pick (2007 out of LSU) will be seen a lot soon. He and his wife Theresa — a Park University graduate — will be on a reality show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The couple, who were married in 2018, lives near Miami on an island which no doubt was bought thanks to his mega contract he signed with the Chiefs.
I tweeted (see @Citizen_CodyT) something out Monday night and I got a good laugh out of it after seeing my friend Jacob post it. The press conference earlier that day with Pres. Donald Trump was held to announce that groups of 10 or less is the recommendation to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Did anyone notice there are 15 people standing behind him when it says groups of 10 or less? Ironic.