Sports Notebook: NBA ‘Snitch Line,’ greedy SEC football coaches, and a strong WGC-FESJI field
The Grizzlies’ Ja Morant (in a Jan 14, 2020 file photo) was asked about the NBA ‘Snitch Line’ last week. “I didn’t see nothing, I didn’t hear nothing, and ain’t saying nothing,” he answered. (Brandon Dill/AP file)
We love a good plot. But you know what we enjoy even more? A juicy subplot.
The NBA plot as we draw nearer to the restart of the season inside the Orlando bubble is about safety amid a pandemic, and that point where playing games at Disney and absent fans intersects with the teams’ and players’ respective drive to win and make history.
In short, the argument could made that winning the NBA title under these conditions would be more impressive than the usual march through a season uninterrupted.
Or the argument could be made that this is only an exercise in collecting the millions of dollars still on the table via TV money and player contracts.
But now the subplot: The NBA has set up the equivalent of the CrimeStoppers hotline. Only instead of dialing 901-528-CASH, players can dial a number ending in -TELL.
The idea behind it is players would be more willing to inform authorities of peers engaging in unsafe behavior during the pandemic than they would if they had to put their name to any allegations.
Predictably, it took about three seconds for this NBA initiative to be dubbed the “Snitch Line.”
The Grizzlies’ Ja Morant was asked about the tip line this past week. He sounded like he was under oath: “I didn’t see nothing, I didn’t hear nothing, and ain’t saying nothing.”
Which does not mean the anonymous tip line has not received some calls. Multiple national media outlets have reported that calls have come in and warnings to players breaking the NBA’s safety protocols have followed.
A safer bubble that allows the season to go forward, obviously, is a good thing.
But let’s be real: The potential for those players who receive warnings to figure out who ratted on them is legit. And far more interesting than any of the box scores will be.
Utah’s Rudy Gobert, forever the NBA’s “ground zero” personified, called the tip line “sort of petty.”
Perhaps. But Gobert also was the poster boy for pulling on the cape of Super Virus. Just days before he tested positive and the league was shut down, Gobert was touching microphones and recorders at a press conference and joking that now everyone would catch COVID-19.
There’s plenty of room to debate protocols, fear-mongering and the like, but one thing this is not is a joke.
Wait a minute, we take that back …
“We’re gonna be the only team left when I’m done with this hotline thing,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said, joking that he already had turned in LeBron James and Gregg Popovich.
No doubt, the former would go a long way toward the main plot of chasing the NBA title.
Meantime, our old friend and former Grizzly Bruno Caboclo, now with the Houston Rockets, reportedly left his room during the mandated 36-hour quarantine period and the Snitch Line allowed authorities to break the case, according to The Athletic.
His punishment: 10 more days in quarantine.
Reflective movie suggestions for Bruno while in quarantine: “Groundhog Day” and “Palm Springs.”
Power 5 football coaches take pay cuts – or not
Are you sitting down? Of the SEC’s 14 head football coaches, only three have taken pay cuts because of the pandemic-related financial strains on their universities, and one of them is Lane Kiffin.
As detailed in an ESPN report, the Ole Miss coach, South Carolina’s Will Muschamp and Missouri’s Eliah Drinkwitz are taking pay reductions while five of the eight highest-paid coaches in the country who work in the SEC are not:
Alabama’s Nick Saban, No. 2 at $8.9 million annually; Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, No. 3 at $7.5 million; Georgia’s Kirby Smart, No. 4 at $6.9 million; Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, No. 5 at $6.8 million; and Florida’s Dan Mullen, No. 8, at $6.1 million.
The ESPN report said South Carolina is facing a $127 million shortfall. Muschamp said the decision to take a one-year 10% pay cut of his $4.4 million salary (so, a reduction of $440,000) was easy. He also said there will be no make-up compensation down the road.
“Our state is going through a really difficult time; our university is going through a really difficult time,” Muschamp said. “I’ve been fortunate in my coaching career.”
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, the highest-paid college football coach at $9.3 million per year, is among those not taking a cut.
By conference, nine of the Big Ten’s 14 football coaches are taking a cut, three are not, and two chose not to respond. Eight of the PAC-12’s coaches are taking a cut and four are not; seven of 15 coaches in the ACC are taking cuts, four are not, and four did not answer; five of the Big 12’s 10 coaches are taking a cut, three are not, and two did not answer.
The SEC’s league credo is “It Just Means More.”
But with 11 of the 14 coaches not taking a cut, perhaps it can be amended: “We Just Keep More.”
ICYMI
Among the recent notable sports stories from the Daily Memphian that are worth your time in case you missed them on the first go-round:
- Calkins: Tigers land Moussa Cisse, feel free to dream again
- Mike Miller headed to Houston High
- Vada was a ballplayer, I was a kid, and that was enough
- Cameron Miller, 2022 prospect, impressed by Memphis football recruiting
- Fewer volunteers at FESJI, but they are essential workers
- Grizzlies make own fun in Orlando
Definite, maybe and no chance …
Definite: Well, as definite as anything involving the throwing arm of a pitcher can be: St. Louis Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty will get the ball for the season-opener against Pittsburgh.
Flaherty went 11-8 with a 2.75 ERA last season and struck out 231 batters in 196.1 innings.
Maybe: Daniel Snyder now makes the Top 5 of the all-time worst pro sports owners.
Snyder, who runs the NFL’s Washington franchise, is only changing the name from Redskins to something else under incredible pressure. And now his franchise has a sexual harassment scandal (he is not directly implicated). Certainly, a list of worst owners starts with soft-core white supremacists Donald Sterling, who owned the Clippers until banned by the NBA, and the late Marge Schott, who owned the Cincinnati Reds.
After those two, the tone-deaf Snyder is moving past other candidates and up the list with a focus his lousy football team hasn’t shown in a long time.
No chance: There will a 132nd Rose Parade at the start of 2021.
The Rose Parade began in 1891 and is held on Jan. 1 each year before the Rose Bowl Game. The last time it was interrupted? During World War II. So, the coronavirus strikes again.
“Obviously, this is not what any of us wanted,” said Bob Miller, 2021 president of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association.
No galleries, but a strong WGC-FESJI field
True, we don’t have a definitive answer on whether Tiger Woods is coming to the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
And yes, it’s official, there won’t be fans at the July 30-Aug. 2 tournament.
But there will be many of the best players the sport has to offer.
The tournament has commitments from last year’s winner, and World Golf Rankings No. 6 Brooks Koepka. Also committed, among others: No. 4 Dustin Johnson, No. 5 Webb Simpson, and No. 7 Bryson DeChambeau.
The Golf Channel will provide afternoon live coverage of the first two rounds. Coverage of the third and fourth rounds will start on the Golf Channel in the late morning and then shift to CBS. There also will be streaming on PGA Live.
The last word
“Agents are already working on guys to shut down (if college football is played in the spring). I think you’d see 40 to 50 guys sit out– Daniel Jeremiah, a former NFL scout and now a draft analyst for NFL Network, as quoted in The Athletic.
Topics
NBA Ja Morant college football COVID-19 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational NBA snitch line SEC coach salaries Subscriber OnlyAre you enjoying your subscription?
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Don Wade
Don Wade has been a Memphis journalist since 1998 and he has won awards for both his sports and news/feature writing. He is originally from Kansas City and is married with three sons.
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