It’s NFL Nation takeover weekend, folks
11:50 AMTraining camp is upon us, so ESPN’s 32 NFL Nation reporters have been hitting the bricks all weekend, appearing all over the network to get fans ready for the season. Things were no different this week with the roasters.
Hour 1
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With Kyrie Irving demanding out of Cleveland via a trade, we wonder: Is playing for LeBron James the actual issue here, or does Uncle Drew really want to lead a team? If the point guard were to get dealt, it would have reasonably large ramifications across the rest of the NBA. But there are also quite a few other people looking to make moves, including Derrick Rose, who might be headed to a contender.
Of course, no one needs NFL experts when Mina Kimes is around, because she basically knows everything about the league. No, seriously. So she ran down her top storyline of the season at this point, and we even got our full NFL highlight music to boot, a theme we’d return to quite frequently.
After that, we chatted with Michael Rothstein, who covers the Detroit Lions. He was refreshingly honest about their chances in the upcoming season to win the NFC North — which, as long as the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers are still in the division, isn’t going to be a realistic goal. We also got an update on where things stand with franchise legend Calvin Johnson, who apparently might be looking to get back into football.
Hour 2
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Of course, former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze has been dominating the headlines recently because of his proclivity for calling escorts using his state-funded cellphone. He’s out of a job, and his predecessor, Houston Nutt, is the one who dropped a dime on him. But there was one detail of the story that went slightly underreported. The university had to cancel its annual event to teach ladies about college football, at which the parting gift was of, course, a cookbook. From there begat an entire separate conversation about which workshops and seminars we would launch if we could.
ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, who covers the Cincinnati Bengals, joined us to talk about where that squad could be headed, which subsequently turned into a long discussion about whether the Pittsburgh Steelers are the best team in the AFC North, or is it the Ravens. And we got more storylines from Mina.
By the time we got around to talking about The Bachelorette, Christian Yates had made it back from his artisan shoehorn pop-up shop at the yacht club to discuss the hometown visits. The Dean situation was the primary discussion, considering how poorly things went with his father on the show. Also, however, as the one who’s gone now, we had to speculate on who’s got the best chance to win going forward.
For Top 5, Domonique Foxworth was impressed by LeBron James’ sneak diss move toward his teammate Irving in which he put out a video listening to a Meek Mill song about loyalty. It was beyond petty, but who knows what his intentions were? Also, there’s Nutt’s incredible takedown of Ole Miss, which is one of the best sneak disses of all time. So we made it a Top 5, and Mr. Foxworth dominated.
Hour 3
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The takeover continued with John Keim, who covers Washington’s NFL franchise. Clinton Yates managed to keep his yelling to a minimum, and they broke down exactly why Kirk Cousins might have a great year. After breaking down the defense, Foxworth did his best to get his co-host riled up, and it just might have worked. Barely.
Speaking of franchises in a relatively reasonable state of flux, the Dallas Cowboys are having offseason issues. Quite a few players have had minor situations, but not enough to necessarily cause large-scale overhauls, which got Domonique thinking. There is a sliding scale of offenses that will trigger major penalties, depending on the number of touchdowns you score. The same works for coaches with off-field infractions. Big scorer? Get away with more stuff. Simple as that. He explains it in more detail.
Lastly, we talked to Seattle Seahawks reporter Sheil Kapadia, who was smart enough to admit that he didn’t even know as much about the team as Mina, which is a great way to ingratiate yourself to the program.
Enjoy!
